Starting Over in Boston
by thatredheadgirl
Summary: Brooke decides that her time in Tree Hill is over and in a spur of the moment Nathan decides to join the head cheerleader wherever she's going, what's going to happen to them once they're under the same roof?
1. The Plan

Summary: Brooke just broke up with Luke who cheated on her with Peyton; Haley just left Nathan for Chris and the tour of a life time. Brooke left Tree Hill never to return and 2 days later Nathan leaves after receiving text message from Brooke. She knew that he needed an escape so Brooke gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. Luke and Peyton are left wondering what happened to their exes. Brathan, Leyton

I own nothing but the story idea…..

Brooke looked at the bright glowing clock on her radio, it was 3 in the morning and she knew that no one was up. Slowly getting up to make no noise she threw her sweatshirt on and shoes. She picked up the remaining bags that she hadn't put in the car yet and took off. She ran down the street to where she parked her car so her parents wouldn't hear the noiseand started the car turning and going towards Nathan's apartment. She had to tell someone she was leaving and the only one who wouldn't tell Lucas, Peyton, or Haley for that matter would be Nathan.

Scurring up the stairs to Nathan's she lightly knocked on the door. Minutes later a very tired Nathan appeared at the door rubbing his eyes. Brooke stood there and waited for him to look at her.

"Davis what are you doing here at 3 in the morning?"

"I'm here to tell you that I'm leaving Tree Hill."

"What?" He asked fully awake now.

"I'm leaving Tree Hill and I just wanted to tell you 'cause you won't tell them."

"Just tell me where you're going?"

"I don't know yet." He stepped out into the chilly early morning air leaving the door slightly ajar.

"Why are you leaving?"

"No one wants me here anymore so I'm just gonna leave so I'm not a burden anymore. I know people will cheer when I'm gone." She struggled not to cry, she hadn't expected Nathan to be so caring. She expected him not to care to just say whatever and turn away.

"Maybe a fresh start won't hurt, when you finally decide where you're going let me know so I know you're safe." Brooke nodded and gave into temptation kissing Nathan. She turned and scurried down the stairs leaving Nathan confused trying to figure what happened. Feeling the cool breeze Nathan briskly walked back into the apartment falling back onto his bed instantly falling asleep.

The next day Brooke woke up in her crummy hotel that she checked into at 5 this morning. She had driven the hour long drive to Raleigh and she still didn't think it was far enough from all the people who broke her heart and all the people that talked about her. She woke up that morning to a program on TV saying that Panic! at the Disco was going to be in Boston soon and that's when Brooke decided that she would go to Boston. She ran out of her room only stopping for flip-flops and her room key before running down tothe internet café she saw when she pulled in.

She paid and sat down at the computer with her latte excited at where she would makeher new home. As she waited for the page to load Brooke text Nathan, _Hey Nate I've decided where I'm going…I'll tell you when everything's all set but if you wanna come then get ready…Brooke._ After she plugged everything in on map quest she decided to check for apartments in the Boston area. Her father had set her up with a big chuck of change in her savings account that she hoped would cover something for an apartment. She printed off everything she needed she rushed back to her hotel room. Dialing the number of the realtor dealing with the place Brooke found she waited for someone to answer pacing the small length of the room.

"Hello Huntington Realty Natalie speaking how can I help you?"

"Hi my name is Brooke Davis and I saw an ad for an apartment in Boston."

"Well I'll need you to be more specific."

"Um…the one on the outskirts of town on Nestler Rd."

"Ah, that one so would you like to see the apartment?"

"Yes but I'm driving up from Raleigh so the earliest I can be there is tomorrow afternoon."

"Alright how about we meet there at 5?"

"Works for me."

"I'll look forward to meeting you tomorrow."

"Thank you." Brooke hung up and quickly gathered her things scurrying off to make it to Boston by 4 tomorrow. She grabbed her phone and quickly sent Nathan a txt message telling him where she wasgoingbefore speeding off to her new home.

Nathan Scott thought about Brooke since she left him speechless earlier that morning. He knew that he had to get away from the memories of Haley and from the gruesome twosome so following Brooke's message he told his landlord he was leaving and packed up all of his stuff now all he had to do waswait for was the message telling him where he was going. As if on cue his phone vibrated and Nathan quickly picked it up. _Meet me in Boston on Friday Brooke._ Nathan snapped his phone shut and immediately called Brooke's cell.

"Hey Nathan, get my message?"

"Yeah are you sure about Boston?"

"You don't have to come, I just thought that you would want to escape from hell."

"I do but Boston?"

"It's the farthest place I could think of, I found an apartment and the realtor's gonna show me it tomorrow afternoon. So are you coming or not?"

"I'm coming."

"How are you gonna get there?"

"Don't worry just give me the address of the place and I'll meet you there Friday."

"Alright, I have to go but I'll see you Friday."

"Yeah see ya Friday." He hung up and starred at the phone in his hands. Was he really running off to Boston to be with Brooke? The thought of leaving made him happy, he couldturn over a new leaf. He just had to leave without anymore seeing him. He called his mother who was currently in West Virginia.

"Hello?"

"Hey mom its Nathan."

"Nathan what's wrong?"

"Could you loan me some money?"

"Why what's wrong honey?"

"You would want me happy right?"

"Of course Nathan. What are you getting at?"

"I'm going to Boston."

"What! Why?"

"I have to get out of Tree Hill mom." Nathan pleaded sounding almost desperate.

"Alright how much do you need?" Nathan calculated the costs in his head his finger moving through the air.

"4,000 dollars." He simply stated hoping she would just hand over the money no questions asked.

"Alright I'll wire it right now. I hope you know what you're doing."

"I do mom and trust me I'll pay you back." She hung up and immediately sent him the money he needed hoping that he was happy. After Nathan had his money he started packing his stuff well the important stuff that is, the rest he would leave for the next person. After setting up a moving company to move his furniture except the bed, that held way too memories for Nathan to take, he looked around his apartment preparing for his new life.

The day before Nathan was to leave to join Brooke in Boston, Peyton Sawyer sat in her bedroom drawing when Luke walked in. She smiled and hugged her boyfriend her smile vanishing when she looked at Luke's sad face.

"What's wrong?"

"Brooke's gone."

"What?"

"She left, took off in the middle of the night."

"Does anyone know where she is?" Luke shook his head no staring at the floor underneath him. "Someone has to know."

"Who? She didn't tell her parents, my mom, you, Haley, Nathan, Mouth, or Bevon. I don't know who else she would tell."

"Maybe she told Nathan or something."

"Yeah maybe I'll ask him tomorrow." Little did they know that Nathan wouldn't be there the next day.

Alright so that's the first chapter…..I hope you guys enjoyed it and tell me what you think!


	2. The First Day Together

Brooke Davis woke up late in the afternoon to someone knocking on the door, she slowly and sluggishly moved to the door rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she opened the door. Nathan stood there and looked at her; her hair was sticking up in places and she was wearing boxers and a baggy t-shirt. Nathan chuckled as he moved past her into the apartment.

"Did I wake you sleeping beauty?" She smacked his arm as she walked back into the bedroom. The apartment had boxes from Nathan's apartment everywhere along with Brooke's bags and stuff made it hard to get around. She seemed to glide through the mess as if she memorized a path.

"Thanks for shipping your stuff overnight, I loved having to get up at 5 this morning when it arrived."

"Well I didn't want to be here without stuff. Where were you sleeping?"

"In the bedroom."

"On what?" He asked genuinely curious because as far as he knew they didn't have a bed.

"A bed stupid, did you expect me to sleep on the floor?"

"Yeah." He chuckled and she smacked him again this time it stung. He rubbed his arm and threw his stuff down. She looked at his smirk and hit him again. "Stop hitting me Davis."

"But its so fun." She whined and fell onto the couch next to Nathan. "So how was your last night in Tree Hill?"

"Boring as hell, Tim was throwing a party and the gruesome twosome were there all over each other." Brooke winced a little but laughed a little.

"Gruesome twosome?"

"Yeah they're always all over each other." Brooke laughed and got up feeling a sudden burst of energy. "What are you doing?"

"Unpacking all your stuff, come help you."

"No I just got here, I'm jet lagged."

"Oh shut up and help me." She pushed him off the couch somehow and he slowly got up groaning. Brooke playfully glared at him and raised her hand as if to hit him and he moved away. It was funny how they were acting now that they were away from Tree Hill and all the clichés and drama.

While Nathan and Brooke unpacked their stuff Luke and Peyton arrived at what they thought was Nathan's apartment. Luke knocked and the door that was slightly ajar opened a little bit more to reveal an empty apartment. They looked around for any sign of a note but after finding nothing throughout the entire apartment they stood bewildered as to what was going on.

"Well I guess that answers my question." Peyton looked at Luke confused. "He's probably with Brooke." Peyton shook her head finding that hard to believe.

"Why would he be with Brooke? I mean they hate each other."

"I don't know but don't you think its weird the she left 2 days ago and now Nathan's gone?"

"Well a little but call his phone see if he'll answer, maybe he moved back in with his parents." Luke rolled his eyes at the thought while dialing Nathan's number. He was shocked when it went straight to voicemail; Nathan never had his phone off. Luke looked at Peyton concern written all over his face. "What?"

"Nathan's phone is off; he never turns his phone off." Peyton's eyes grew wide in surprise. Something was up and they were going to figure it out. They left wondering what happened to their exes.

Nathan and Brooke collapsed on the couch in exhaustion after spending the last 4 hours unpacking everything. They argued over where things went and Nathan's arm was red from Brooke's constant smacks. Nathan did have a great laugh when Brooke slipped the shirt he threw on the floor after sweating through it. That earned him two smacks from the abusive queen Brooke as he started calling her.

"What do you think people will say when they find out we're both gone?" Brooke asked breaking the silence that was bugging her.

"They'll probably think I got you pregnant and we had to run away to raise the baby." They both laughed, they both grabbed their phones and turned them on. "Hey look who called me." Brooke looked at Nathan's phone and smiled.

"Call him back."

"Why would I call him back?"

"I don't know to have some fun. Tell him you ran away to chase Haley."

"I'm not calling him back."

"Fine then but I'm bored so we have to find something to do." Brooke whined sticking out her bottom lip.

"Not gonna work Davis." He was tired he just wanted to stay in the apartment and relax.

"Just dinner that's it." He groaned again, she wasn't going to give up until she got what she wanted.

"Fine just dinner." Brooke smiled and stood up pulling Nathan up with her. She ran into the bedroom and quickly changed and soon they were heading out for just a simple dinner.

After driving around for 20 minutes they decided on going to Denny's, after they passed it 10 times that is. "Ya know I've been meaning to ask you something." Nathan started taking a sip of his drink.

"What's on your mind?"

"The night you left why did you kiss me?" Brooke's eyes flickered up to Nathan's before shooting the waiter that brought them their food. She seemed to think about her answer as she chewed on her burger.

"Spur of the moment?" She asked in reply to his question hoping he'd buy it. She didn't really know why she kissed him she just did and it was a nice kiss.

"Uh huh sure." He laughed as she shoved another fry in her mouth. He was really starting to like the nice side of Brooke well besides the constant smacks.

"What are you starring at?" Nathan shook his head realizing that he was starring at her.

"Nothing." He blushed a little trying to regain his composure. He shouldn't be thinking about Brooke like someone he could possibly end up dating. They would be living together for however long and if something were to happen then it would be awkward. Plus there was still his marriage to Haley and that was an issue until she signed the papers that he had drawn up. They continued to eat in silence until Nathan's phone rang and the oh so familiar ring tone indicating that Haley was calling was heard. Nathan put his fork down and answered his phone.

"Hello?"

"What the hell Nathan!" She screamed into the phone. He sighed he knew she would get pissed about the papers.

"What did you expect Haley? I mean I'm not gonna sit around and wait for you to come back, plus you knew when you left that it was over so you have no right to be mad and upset. I've already signed the papers so for me its over." He hung up and slammed his phone on the table.

"How about we head back?" Nathan nodded suddenly not having an appetite for anything. As they drove Nathan just starred out the window therefore avoiding all questions that he knew were floating around in Brooke's mind. He would answer them all eventually but now he just needed to forget all about it.

When they got back to the apartment they both changed for bed and Nathan started towards the couch before Brooke stopped him. He turned and looked at her the hurt evident in his eyes and Brooke knew that feeling all too well after Luke broke up with her for her former best friend.

"The bed's big enough for both of us; you shouldn't have to sleep on the couch." Nathan nodded and climbed into the opposite side of Brooke. He turned on his side and found himself starring at Brooke who looked concerned.

"I'm fine." He turned on his other side sighing. This was supposed to make his life better; starting over away from home and the memories but now they seem to haunt him. Maybe leaving wasn't the best thing for him.


	3. Moving on to the Future

Nathan woke up the morning after the phone call with Haley and looked over at Brooke sleeping. He knew he owed her an explanation and he would give her exactly that today. She didn't deserve his attitude and he should thanking her for even think to invite him out to Boston. He stayed up half the night doubting if coming out to Boston was the right thing to do but one look at Brooke as she slept for some reason made everything okay even the pending divorce from Haley.

He sighed and got up out of bed throwing on some sweats padding into the kitchen. He rummaged through the cabinets looking for some coffee; he needed the boost this morning after the horrible night he had. He started the coffee maker and walked into the living room to turn on the TV. He just so happened to turn on ET on MTV. He watched as they talked about some stupid fashion thing and just as he was about to change the channel pictures of Haley and Chris came on the screen from some magazine photo shoot. It made Nathan sick when he saw them together. He turned his attention to the coffee maker to see how much longer it had and when he turned back to the TV it was off and Brooke was standing in front of him in his shirt from yesterday. He smiled at her 'she looks hot in my clothes'. The shirt was long enough to cover her body and Nathan just smiled at her.

"The whole point of coming out here to was to start over. You really need to move on from Haley and stop thinking about her so much." Brooke snapped walking into the kitchen to get some coffee. Nathan was caught off guard by Brooke's tone.

"I know okay? Don't you think I want to get over her? Well guess what it's easier said than done." Nathan shot back standing up and starring at her.

"I know its not that easy Nathan trust me I know but you can't spend your whole life dwelling on the past." Brooke was very cranky this morning from Nathan's tossing and turning last night. Nathan just looked at her shaking his head as he walked towards her to get coffee. After he poured himself a cup he just stood there looking at his coffee.

As he tried to pass Brooke she stopped him with her hand forcing him to stop and look at her. He could see the caring and concern in her eyes and she could see the hurt and pain in his eyes. His first serious girlfriend had taken his heart yanked it out and was currently stomping on it. She knew that feeling all too well. She leaned up and whispered into Nathan's ear, "You and I have more in common then you think." She turned on her heel and went back into the bedroom to change.

She was going to look for a job today because she had to have something to do for money and it would get her out of the apartment. As she changed she could feel Nathan's presence in the room with her and she just went about changing. She turned towards him and saw a small smile on his face.

"I'm sorry for being distant and shit. I was so wrapped up in me that I forgot that you know what I'm going through minus the whole failed marriage thing."

"Whatever Nathan don't worry about it. We all have our moments." She shrugged and went about getting ready. He just stood there not knowing what to do. She stood in front of him waiting to get past him but he didn't move. "Please move." She would try the polite thing and when that didn't work she physically tried to move him but we wouldn't budge. "Come on Nathan please move." He smiled down at her and stood up straighter. He had finally decided what he was going to do with her. She pushed against him again and Nathan pulled her closer to him. She looked up at him questioning his motives. He picked her up off the ground and kissed her; this kiss was more forceful then the last and more passionate. Brooke caught up in the moment wrapped her arms around Nathan's neck and her legs around Nathan's waist. Nathan moved towards the bed while moving down to Brooke's neck.

Nathan pinned Brooke down to the bed and kissed a trial down from her mouth to her neck. Brooke just moaned in response arching her back giving him more access when his phone began to ring soon after her phone chimed in and she pulled away.

"Leave it Brooke." He whispered husky and rough. Brooke nodded and Nathan pulled her shirt off exposing her bare skin. She dug her nails into his back as he pushed against her.

Soon clothes were shed and Nathan was on-top of Brooke pushing deeper and deeper pushing Brooke over the edge. She loved the feeling he was giving her and she never wanted it to stop. Nathan pushed harder and faster as he finally went over the edge and Brooke moaned minutes later as the feeling died down. Nathan pulled out of her and laid next to her.

"What was that?" Brooke asked turning on her side to face him. Nathan just smiled again and kissed her.

"That was beginning of the future." She smiled at him and inched towards him. Both of their doubts about living together were now completely gone. Brooke knew that things were going to work out for them and Nathan well he was just glad that he found someone who understood what he was going through. He knew that something was going to spark between them and it was just a matter of time.


	4. The First Day off Work

It had been a week since Nathan and Brooke had slept together and they were currently ignoring each other. Brooke would be up and gone before Nathan woke up and Nathan would be gone when Brooke came home. Brooke didn't mean to ignore Nathan it's just that her new job at a new clothing store downtown and had her working really hard. Nathan also got a job working at a sporting goods store near Brooke's job. He wanted to talk to her but she was always fast asleep when he got home from work and he wouldn't wake her up because she had to get up early for work.

Today was the first day that both Nathan and Brooke had the day off. It was weird for Brooke not to have to get up at the crack of dawn to go to work. Nathan was the first to wake up around 7:30 and decided to make Brooke breakfast. It was the least he could do to make up for the past week.

He could tell just by watching her sleep when he walked in the night before that something had happened to her because she was tossing and turning like he had the night that Haley had called. He hoped that she would tell him what happened yesterday and that maybe just maybe it was something good.

The first thing he started was the coffee knowing full well that it would wake her up so he wouldn't have to do it because the last time he tried to wake her she smacked him hard across the face. He didn't want to experience that again ever again. Her constant smacks to the arm before they starting ignoring each other were enough abuse for Nathan.

The coffee maker started and Nathan went about trying to make breakfast with what little food they had, he forgot to go grocery shopping yesterday because he woke up late for work. He hoped that Brooke wasn't mad at him that's if she even talked to him. It seemed like every time they were in the same room together there was this tension that Nathan swore you could cut with a steak knife.

He broke the eggs and started to scramble them as the bacon cooked. He heard Brooke moving moments later and smiled. She came out of the bedroom the sweet aroma of coffee hitting her and moving her towards the coffee maker. After she poured herself a cup she looked at Nathan as he made breakfast, today was the first time that they actually spent in the same room for more than 2 seconds.

"You need some help?" He turned to her and shook his head yes. "Okay Mr. Chef what needs to be done?"

"Could you put some bread in the toaster?" She nodded and grabbed some bread and threw it into the toaster. Nathan put the bacon on a plate and took it to the table along with the eggs. Nathan grabbed the toast while Brooke got a cup of coffee for Nathan. They sat down and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast together for the first time ever now that Nathan thought about it.

"So how was work yesterday?" Brooke asked breaking the silence that fallen between them.

"Boring as hell I was all alone."

"I'm sorry."

"Can I ask you something?" She nodded sipping her coffee.

"Did anything happen yesterday?"

"Why do you ask?" He could tell that she was ready to put up the wall and shut him out.

"I was just wondering because when I came in last night you were tossing and turning."

"Well you might as well know I talked to Lucas yesterday."

"And did you tell where we are?"

"No he asked if I knew where you were and I told him I didn't."

"Did he ask where you were?" She shook her head no and took a deep breath. She had cried all her tears over it yesterday before Nathan came home. He wasn't going to see her at her worst. No one ever saw Brooke at her worst and no one ever would. She felt her eyes watering and excused herself from the table. She took several deep breaths and as soon as the door shut she fell on the bed and sobbed.

Nathan just sat at the table starring between the door and where Brooke had just been sitting. He felt furious that Luke only cared about where he was because Luke and he hated each other and Brooke was his ex girlfriend who he 'loved'. Not even thinking Nathan whipped his phone out and dialed his brother's number. It rang 2 times before Luke answered.

"How the hell could you do that to her!" Nathan screamed into the phone when he was outside the apartment.

"Where are you?"

"You don't get to know where I am. You lost that right when you called Brooke yesterday and only wanted to know where I was. You don't even deserve sharing the same bastard father with me. You might as well be dead to me and to think I was actually going to call you and tell you where we are but no."

"So you're with Brooke?"

"Are you not listening to me or just trying to piss me off?"

"I am listening to you. Haley's back and looking for you."

"Well that's good for her. I don't have time for Haley's drama; I have to fix the damage you caused." Nathan slammed his phone shut and walked back into the apartment. Sighing he pushed the bedroom door open and Brooke was bundled up under the blankets crying. She kept sniffling trying to muffle the sounds of her sobs with a pillow.

"Brooke," Nathan whispered making his way towards her. She shook her head no and shifted further down in the blankets hiding her tear stained face. Nathan laughed a little but still pulled the covers back. "I talked to Luke, well more like yelled at him." She didn't respond she only looked at the pillow. "Come on I know that you want to rip his throat out but you know I didn't do anything wrong." She looked up from the pillow she was clutching.

"It still hurts." He shifted Brooke a little so he was lying face to face with her.

"I know it hurts and you need to know that you don't need him. You're the best that you can be." He gently touched her cheek wiping at the tears still falling.

"How can you be so nice to me after everything that's happened?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I basically ruined your chances for a normal brother thing with Lucas."

"No you just showed me how much of a jerk he really is. You deserve the best." She smiled a little and inched towards him. He took the hint and closed the gap between them kissing her gently. She pushed against him deepening the kiss and he lightly grabbed her waist. They pulled apart and Nathan rested his forehead against Brooke's. "Ya know living together we're probably going to fall head over heels for each other." Brooke whispered looking Nathan deep in the eyes.

"Well then bring it on. I'm ready for a challenge." She laughed and laid her head on Nathan's shoulder as they laid there relaxing and enjoying their time together.


	5. Haley's still on Nathan's mind

Usually when you live with a boyfriend of girlfriend you have at least started dating. Most people would be shocked to hear that Brooke and Nathan were young and "runaways". They both ran away from a dramatic roller coaster like small town. Nathan's boss was surprised when he heard about Nathan's story and Brooke's boss being a sweet romantic believer repeat 29er offered Brooke a place to stay when things were rough.

But the only rough thing about living in Boston was Haley. She called Nathan at least 20 times a day some times even 10 times an hour and it was pissing both Nathan and Brooke off. Brooke hated when Nathan talked to Haley because he was always in a foul mood and distant after he talked to her and when Brooke's trying to start a relationship with Nathan it puts her two steps back. She just wanted things to be drama free in Boston.

Nathan just wanted the divorce finalized so he could get Haley out of his life for good and to move on with his life. He really did want to have a low key life in Boston and a healthy drama free relationship with Brooke without Haley looming over his head. Thinking back on his marriage to Haley he didn't regret being with her but he did regret what happened between them. They were going in two different directions and staying together wouldn't allow them to grow and fulfill their dreams. If his marriage to Haley hadn't of ended then he would have ever gotten to know Brooke and be with Brooke right now.

Speaking of Haley Nathan's phone went off by his head and before he could reach it Brooke snatched up his phone and walked out of the room. "Brooke!" He called after her shooting out of bed and throwing his boxers on before Brooke did something she would later regret. "What are you doing?" She looked up and merely smiled.

"Haley hun get a clue. He doesn't want to be with you anymore. If he wanted to he would be there with you right now trying to fix your problems. You need to just move on and find someone who wants to be with you." Nathan smiled and wrapped his arms around Brooke as she listened to Haley yell into the phone. He pushed her hair aside and kissed her neck while she tried to swat in away. He moved further up kissing behind her ear and pulling away as she shivered. Spinning her around he grabbed the phone out of her hand.

"Bye Haley." He shut the phone and tossed it aside gently pushing Brooke towards the couch. Nathan gently pushed her down so he was on top of her as his phone went off across the room. Brooke went to answer it but Nathan stopped her. "Leave it." She nodded and pulled Nathan's shirt over her head.

Nathan couldn't remember the last time that he and Brooke actually had a conversation about themselves. "I should get to know her more." He thought as they cuddled on the couch watching some sappy chick flick that had come on. He looked down at Brooke whose eyes were glued to the TV screen not wanting to miss a moment of the movie.

Brooke shifted a little as the credits rolled and got up but Nathan caught her wrist before she could walk away. "Where are you going?"

"To bed this couch is uncomfortable." She pulled him up with her and moved towards the bedroom.

"I don't wanna go to bed I'm not tired." He whined pulling her towards the couch.

"Who says we're going to sleep?" She smiled wickedly grabbing Nathan's shirt on her way. She shut the door and counted to five in her head. Right on 5 Nathan come in the door and they fell back on the bed Haley and the divorce the last things on his mind.

As Nathan and Brooke laid in bed Brooke felt content with the ways were for now. She was just waiting until she didn't have to compete with Haley for Nathan's attention and she hoped that after all was said and done she and Nathan could be together.


	6. Haley's Letter

Nathan threw the door open to the apartment going through the mail. He sighed when he saw a letter from Haley. He didn't know why she wasn't letting it go because from what he saw Haley had moved on. He tore the envelope open and pulled the letter out.

_Nathan,_

_I know that what happened between us was horrible but I'm hoping that we can put our past behind us and start over fresh. I love you Nathan and want to be with you. I've had some time to think about what I did to you and I'll admit it wasn't the best but I had to follow my dream and now my dream is to be with you._

_I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I'm hoping that you'll come home and start over with me. Please Nathan give us another shot. I know that you're with Brooke but you can't really love her can you? I mean do you love her like you love(d) me? She can't really be the one you need._

_Nathan all I want is you to say that you love me and want to give us another shot. There's not a whole lot more I can say to make you come back except I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for hurting you and throwing what we had away for some music tour. Come home Nathan so we can be together._

_Haley_

Nathan was beyond pissed at Haley. How dare she say that Brooke wasn't the one he needed! How dare she apologize then want him to come home! Boston was his home now and he was going to live with Brooke. Brooke was more than Nathan could ask for right now while he was dealing with the divorce and his parents divorce that all he wanted was someone to be there for him. He didn't know exactly how far his feelings for Brooke went but he knew that he still wanted to be with her and together they can make it through it anything. He decided against answering Haley's letter but decided to call her. She needed to hear from his mouth that they were over. He sat on the couch and dialed her number.

"Hello?"

"Haley it's Nathan."

"Oh Hi!" She answered her voice perkier then when she first answered. "What's up?"

"First off how dare you say that Brooke's not right for me because you don't know anything about her, second I'm not coming back my life is here not in Tree Hill, third saying sorry won't fix what you did and didn't do, and fourth it's over Haley you need to grasp that fact. Had you written that letter 3 months ago then I would have been happy to give things another shot but it's too late what happened between us is over."

"Nathan please." She pleaded and he sighed.

"No Haley you need to stop dragging this on and on. Please sign the papers so we can move on with our lives."

"No Nathan we still have a chance."

"No Haley we don't! You have your music and I have my life with Brooke so there's not a chance for us."

"Nathan you can't really say that you actually love her?"

"Why is it so hard for you to believe that I might actually love her and want to be with her?"

"She's Brooke Davis, she breaks guy's hearts like no tomorrow and she sleeps with anything that moves. Look at what she did to Luke."

"I can't believe that you just said that! News flash Hales Luke broke Brooke's heart by sleeping with Peyton not the other way around and so what she's Brooke Davis? She's not the same girl she was in Tree Hill. You don't know her and that's because you don't want to get to know her. It's people like you that made her leave."

"Why'd you go with her?" Nathan ran his hand through his hair as Brooke walked in with groceries.

"I went with her because she was just like me. She needed an escape from all the pain and damn drama. She offered me a fresh start away from everything and I agreed. I went with her because for once she was being the real Brooke Davis that actually has feelings."

"Nathan just think about coming back."

"No Haley my mind's made up. You and I are through and you need to realize that." He hung up and put his head in his hands sighing. Brooke sat next to him and put a hand around his shoulders.

"Hey you look like you're having a bad day."

"Yeah my mom called and said that you and I have to come home for Christmas and then the whole Haley drama."

"What'd she do this time?"

"She wants to start over and be together and I can't do that. I loved her but then fell out of love with her and then she started attacking you and I got pissed."

"You didn't have to stick up for me."

"Yes I do, if they would only see you for who you are they wouldn't talk about you."

"That was sweet."

"I know I'm buttering you up so you say that you'll go home with me for Christmas."

"I guess since your mom wants you home we can go for Christmas."

"You're the best."

"Now what are we doing for Thanksgiving?"

"I wanna hang out here with you and do absolutely nothing." She smiled and put her head on Nathan's shoulder.

"What are we gonna eat?"

"Do you really want to try and make a real Thanksgiving dinner?" She shook her head no laughing at the thought of them actually trying to make something.

"No we would burn the whole apartment down."

"So we have something we know we can make."

"Breakfast?"

"I don't know yet I have 2 days to figure it out." She yawned and laid her head in Nathan's lap. "Rough day at work?"

"Yes Heather didn't come into work so I was alone for 4 hours and like 3 people came in."

"I'm sorry."

"It was so horrible." She yawned again and Nathan pulled a blanket over and turned on a movie.

"So just relax and take a nap." She soon drifted off to sleep and Nathan thought about what to make them for Thanksgiving. It was going to be a nice relaxing drama free Thanksgiving just what Nathan wanted.


	7. Tree Hill is never boring

Brooke fell back on her bed and sighed, she had nothing nice to wear for Nathan's mom. She wanted this trip to be perfect to make a great impression on his mom and make his mom love her. She just wanted everything perfect.

Nathan walked into the apartment tossing his keys on the counter a huge smile on his face. He walked into the bedroom and laughed to himself when he saw Brooke sprawled on the bed muttering to herself. He flopped on the bed next to her. "Talking to yourself won't pack your bags."

"I have nothing nice to wear for your mom, Nate."

"What are you talking about? You have a lot of stuff."

"But that's clubbing clothes not take me home to meet mommy clothes."

"I bet you have nice clothes." He sat up and looked through all her clothes sprawled on the bed. He then walked over to the closet, looking through the clothes that still hung on the rack. Brooke watched him for several moments before he turned around smiling again. "We can buy you some new clothes."

"Nathan we don't have that much money."

"Brooke, don't worry about money, come on." He pulled her up and out the door. They drove to the nearest mall and set out finding Brooke's take me home to meet mommy clothes. After spending 2 hours in the mall Brooke was satisfied and they went back home to spend their last day in the apartment before spending a week in Tree Hill for Christmas.

Brooke moved the last of her bags into the living room and turned back to the coffee maker. Nathan was still packing so she brought him a cup of coffee. He kissed her cheek and zipped his suitcase. "Are you ready for this?"

"To be honest…" She trailed off meeting his eyes. "No." He smiled at her uneasiness, he knew it was going to be hard to go back to Tree Hill but he promised her that they would just stay at the beach house with his mom if she wanted too. "I called my parents and told them that I was going to be home for Christmas and they want to meet you."

"Do they miss you?"

"Actually they do but they support me."

"Did you tell them about work?"

"No I thought I would save that surprise for in person." She beamed when she thought about telling her parents that she was going to open her own business with a friend from work. She was actually going to do what she's always wanted to do. She leaned into Nathan as they entered the airport. Going back to Tree Hill wasn't as scary as she thought.

Deb waited for Nathan and Brooke at the airport with Karen. She was really excited to have Nathan home for Christmas and hoped that he was happy with Brooke after all she'd heard. She'd admit that she didn't like Haley but all that matter was Nathan's happiness so now Deb was open to meet anybody that Nathan brought home.

Nathan stopped after getting off the plane pulling Brooke to close to him. He didn't know how she was taking all of this so well because almost 3 months ago they were both running away from this place and now they were back. He didn't know how she wasn't worried like he was because of Lucas and Haley. He hoped that they didn't know that they were back in town because knowing them they would do anything to try and break them up. That scared Nathan more than anything; he didn't want to lose Brooke. She was too important in his life now that he had seen the real her and wasn't about to throw all that away because of his jaded ex-wife. He pulled away from Brooke and kissed her forehead lightly trying to convey his feelings into one action so she'd understand and she just smiled brightly something he hadn't seen that much of since the whole Haley thing went down. Then it finally clicked for Nathan, Brooke was afraid of losing him to Haley, she was afraid that he was going to come back here and stay leaving Brooke back at square one. He smiled happily to himself about his realization as they continued their walk to baggage claim.

When Deb saw Nathan her whole face lit up and she threw her arms around her so happy that her baby was back. She pulled away from Nathan and kissed his cheek too happy to speak. She then turned to Brooke and looked between them, this was the first time that Nathan had a real smile on his face and Deb hugged Brooke. "Thank you for making my son happy again." She whispered into Brooke's ear and Brooke just nodded in response smiling as they broke apart. They silently walked back to the car when Brooke realized that Karen might have told Lucas that she and Nathan were coming home for a visit. She stopped and pulled Nathan aside, "What if Karen told Lucas about us?" She whispered nervously looking at Nathan with scared eyes.

"Don't worry even if he does know nothing will happen, I promise." He kissed his cheek pulling her along to catch up with his mom and Karen. 'This is going to be interesting.' Nathan thought as they rode back to Tree Hill preparing to face the firing squad. 'At least they're still in school and can't do anything till later.' He kept repeating in his head as they drove into the all too familiar town of Tree Hill.

After they were all settled at the beach house Nathan and Brooke took off from Deb and Karen and took a walk on the beach. "This is the only good part about Tree Hill, there's no drama here." Brooke whispered as they walked and Nathan just nodded not knowing what to say. It was weird being back in Tree Hill after being gone for so long, he didn't think that it would have ever come back after deciding to run away with Brooke.

Lucas and Peyton sat in their class of the day when Haley waved to him through the window motioning for him to come out into the hallway. Lucas quickly asked the teacher if he could go to the bathroom and almost rushed out of the room. "What is it Haley?" He whispered not wanting anyone to hear them out in the hallway knowing that if they were heard they would get in trouble.

"Lucas, Brooke and Nathan are back in town." She whispered a look of relief washed over her face. He just stared at her in disbelief not knowing if she was just telling him so rumor she had heard or if it was the truth. He didn't know if he should be happy that they came home or angry that they didn't even bother to call and tell them that they were coming home for however long they were home.

Nathan looked at the clock as he and Brooke lay on the couch watching some TV knowing that if he was right they would be seeing the people that pushed to leave Tree Hill in the first place and Nathan didn't know if Brooke could handle it. "I'm going to take a nap." Brooke whispered getting up off the couch laying a kiss upon Nathan's cheek. There was something up with Brooke since they stepped off the plane, it was like she was keeping Nathan at bay in case something happened so she could just take off for Boston. As soon as Brooke was in the bedroom there was a knock on the door and Nathan feared that it was Lucas which he was right. He just glared at all of them as he stood leaning against the front door his worry about Brooke replaced with anger and numbness. Haley's smile faded a little bit but didn't say anything. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came here to see you, I mean you did take off and leave without saying goodbye. Is there a crime against that?" Peyton spoke up knowing that Lucas and Haley wouldn't say anything.

"Well that's really nice of you," Nathan started the sarcasm and anger dripping from his voice. "But I don't see you guys." She went to shut the door but Haley stepped up and put her hand on it stopping it and making Nathan look up at her.

"Just give me 2 minutes, Nathan." He sighed and nodded letting them in. Haley continued past the living room out onto the deck.

"So what do you wanna talk about?" Nathan asked at least trying to be nice, maybe if he was nice she would leave faster.

"I wanna talk about us." She looked up at him with those beautiful eyes that stole his heart last year; he sighed and turned away from her. "Nathan, do you really wanna give up what we have for some little phase or whatever you're going through by going out with Brooke?"

"Haley you can't think that I'm just going to drop everything and come running back to you after everything you did and said. I'm happy in Boston with Brooke and I know that it's hard for you to comprehend that but that's the truth."

As Nathan and Haley were talking on the deck Brooke walked out of the bedroom coming face to face with Lucas and Peyton both surprised to actually see her and in a pair of Nathan's old sweats and a baggy t-shirt. She plastered a fake smile on her face and looks out onto the deck just in time to see Nathan and Haley kiss. Her heart sinks and tears instantly filling her eyes and before anyone could say anything she had her bags in a cab heading to her parent's house.

Nathan pushed Haley away from him and saw Brooke running out of the house. He took off towards her ignoring the calls from Haley and Lucas; he just kept running after the cab that seemed to be going faster than Nathan could run. He finally gave up when the cab turned and Nathan lost sight of it not knowing where she was going. He walked back to the house and saw the three of them standing on the porch watching him with such intensity that it made Nathan feel even worse. "I want you guys out of here and I never want to see you again." He said the last part looking straight at Haley before going back into the house slamming the front door hard behind him.

Brooke slid down the front door of her parent's house crying and wondering why she ever invited Nathan to come with her. "It looks like I'll be starting over in Boston alone." She muttered calling her parents telling them she would be returning back to Boston but she loved them and would see them if they ever came to Boston. She sat in the foyer of the house not wanting to move but wanting to leave and never look back. She knew that she had to tell Nathan that she was okay with him being with Haley and that she would let them have the apartment in Boston.

She decided to write him a letter and have Deb give it to him. She knew it was cop out but that's all she knows how to do. She has never been good with dealing with the people that broke her heart. So after dropping the letter off Brooke found herself sitting on a plane going home to spend the holidays with a friend from work. She vowed to never come back to Tree Hill ever again.

Nathan was sitting on the beach when his mom came up to him a small smile on her face as she handed him the letter his name sprawled on it in Brooke's handwriting, he knew that this wasn't good and sighed thanking his mom for giving it to him. He just looked at for awhile before opening and quickly scanning over the letter. One thing caught his eye right off the bat, "You and Haley can have the apartment." His heart sank when he read that one sentence of the whole letter and had to get out of here. He stood and walked up the walkway back to the beach house stopping dead in his tracks when he saw Haley standing in front of him.

"God can't you just get a hint?" He screamed in frustration. "I'm done with you Haley; you picked Chris over me Haley so just face it we're over. There will never be an us again. I left because of you and now I've lost everything because of you." He pushed past her the last part of his tirade hitting him hard. He'd lost everything that mattered to him in a matter of hours. He fell back on the bed a wave of sadness hitting him. He knew that Brooke wouldn't never take him back after what he had let happen. He had no choice to go back to Boston and move his stuff out of the apartment. He had to find another place because staying in Tree Hill was out of the question. He stood up again and walked out of the house calling out to his mom that he was leaving and that he was sorry for ruining her Christmas. He sat on the plane alone knowing that nothing was ever going to be the same. Starting over in Boston was a bad idea I shouldn't have never left. He thought as the plane landed in Boston and he took a cab back to the apartment to start packing his stuff. He wasn't surprised to find that Brooke wasn't there so he packed up his clothes, leaving everything else leaving Brooke a note she could keep it before going to check in a hotel for the night. It was definitely over for them that he was sure of no matter how much it hurt him to say it.


	8. As if it never happened

Brooke stood in front of her apartment building a mixture of feelings in her stomach. She wanted to see Nathan but then didn't want to see him, it was hot and cold kinda thing. Staying with her boss for a week her whole, "Distance makes the heart grow fonder" finally got annoying so Brooke packed up her belongs and decided to head home. She didn't know if Nathan and Haley would be there she hoped they weren't because that would make it even harder, she didn't want to see the man she loved with another girl especially his ex wife. She just wanted to be happy with someone that loved her without all the drama; she left Tree Hill because of the drama and she didn't want Boston to be like Tree Hill.

She slowly made her way up the stairs telling herself she could do it over and over in her head. She stopped in front of her door taking a few deep breaths before finally walking in and smiled a bit when she saw Nathan sitting at the kitchen table but frowned when she saw his head in his hands. She was still a little mad about the whole kissing thing but she was determined to make their relationship work, she loved him and knew after numerous calls from Deb that it was Haley who kissed Nathan not the other way around. She cleared her throat a smile fixated on her face; she hadn't smiled a real smile since she came back until she saw Nathan. She sat there waiting for him to lift his head the butterflies multiplying her stomach. Finally getting a little annoyed she put her finger under his chin and lifted his head. She gasped when she saw the state of Nathan's face. "Nathan what happened?" He turned away from her ashamed to tell her what had happened the night before. He didn't even remember what happened last night; he had been too drunk to remember. He pushed himself away from the table; he couldn't handle being that close to her knowing that he hurt her so bad. "Nathan what happened?" She repeated her eyes watering he finally looked at her and his face softened and his hands flew out cupping her face wiping the tears away. She put her hands on his cheeks inspecting his face as they sat there for a few moments both not saying a word.

"Nathan," She whispered looking deep into his eyes. "Talk to me." She looked away from his eyes focusing on the ground beneath her. He sat shocked, he thought she hated him, never wanted to him and here she was sounding almost concerned.

"Why are you here I cheated on you? I mean you deserve better than me." She looked up at him disbelief written all over her face, she didn't think that he would say that. She thought that he wouldn't own up to what happened but deny it and play the blame game. He just looked at her watching as his words sunk in; he had cheated on her when he let Haley kiss him and he wasn't going to deny it he was going to own up.

"I love you okay and I'm willing to make this work if you are." She yelled standing up and looking at him. "I'm came here hoping to see you and fix things with you because I'm miserable without you Nathan. I need you and you need me. We're all we have out here and excuse me all the hell for just trying to be happy!" She finished her screaming her chest heaving and new tears falling. She just wanted to hit him for being so difficult and just so like _**her**_.

"I want you to be happy too Brooke more than anything but do you really trust me? I'm not trying to tell you that you shouldn't trust me but I want you to be 100 sure that you love me. I don't wanna get hurt again so excuse me for trying to safeguard my heart from getting broken again!" He stopped to control his breathing and calm down before he did something he would regret later, his abdomen was started throbbing and suddenly the night's events came rushing back. He fell back into the chair his chest heaving from the pain. Brooke watching him fall back and rushed to his side.

"Come on Nathan let's go." She helped him up and out the door, she was going to make sure that he was okay not bleeding to death or something. As they waited in the ER Nathan put his head on Brooke's shoulder tired and feeling a little nauseas and she just put her arm around him, it was like the fight earlier didn't happen. It was just like it was before the awful trip back to Tree Hill.

Hours later Nathan was released from the ER with some pain medication and a stern warning not to drink and start fights with people bigger than him. Brooke helped Nathan to the car relieved that it wasn't anything serious and smacked Nathan's arm for being so stupid. She stopped at a stop light and looked up to the skies above, "Thank you for watching out for him." She whispered before driving home emotionally and physically drained.

Brooke helped Nathan into bed wrapping the blanket around him and kissed his forehead, it was weird for Brooke to be taking care of Nathan usually she was always being taken care of but things were different in Boston. As Brooke got up to leave to get something to eat and some water for Nathan he stopped her grabbing her wrist and looking straight in her eyes. "I love you Brooke Davis." He whispered before drifting off to sleep and Brooke smiled and kissed his forehead again and walked out of the room. The radio played in the background and Brooke stopped and listened for awhile.

So I'm standing here

Arms wide open

Ready to give my heart

I'm sure this time

Love's gonna last for life

Baby I know things change

And there might be some rain

But the clouds are gonna clear

And the sun is gonna shine again

Shine light on our love baby

So let's make it last forever

She smiled singing that part as she grabbed a bottle of water for Nathan. That song was her new favorite song.

A/N: So Nathan got drunk the night before got into a fight and obviously lost…..I didn't think that I would put that in there but it kinda works I guess and the part of the song is Never Say Goodbye by JoJo, it's a good song. I hope you guys like this chapter and review!


	9. A runin in WalMart

Brooke woke up in a cold sweat and rushed into the bedroom to find Nathan still sound asleep with a smile on his face. She sighed and turned away from Nathan's sleeping form and went into the kitchen to make some coffee. It was 3 in the morning and so far it had been a long night, boy was she glad that she had the day off tomorrow otherwise it would be a bad day. She leaned against the counter as the coffee started to brew and her stomach grumbled. She hoped that Nathan at least had food in the apartment because if she remembered correctly there was no food when they left for Tree Hill.

She sighed again trying to get her memories of Tree Hill out of her mind and tried to focus on her new venture. She knew that coming out to Boston was a good idea and now she was going to be working for herself with no one to tell her what to do. She still hadn't talked to her parents since her last day in Tree Hill and she felt bad because she was trying to mend the relationship that she had with her parents and not calling them wasn't really a step in the right direction.

Nathan woke up to the smell of coffee and smiled, he looked at the clock rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out of them. He slowly got up as the pain shot through his body, never before in his entire life had he ever felt pain like this. He suddenly remembered that he had great news to tell Brooke and rushed as fast as he could out of the room. Brooke looked up as Nathan came shuffling into the room with a huge smile on his face.

"Sorry about waking you up I just needed some coffee." She began to apologize knowing how much he needed his sleep. Nathan just looked at her a smile yet confused look on his face, she was definitely not being the Brooke Davis he knew but hey he wasn't complaining.

"It's okay it reminded me about something." He began making his way to the chair in front of him because he had a strong urge to sit down. He waited until she had her coffee and toast and sat across from him at the table just like they had done earlier before their trip to the ER. He pushed those thoughts out of his head and looked up at her. "I have something to tell you." She nodded her head as she took a sip of coffee. "I'm going back to school." She looked up at him shocked with her mouth hanging open and toast midway to her mouth.

"You're going back to school?"

"Yeah, I think that it'll be the best way the scouts will see me that way I can go to school hopefully around here and get into the pros." She looked up at him happy that he was doing something good with his life but that might mean that in a little over 6 months he'll be off at some college away from her. They just worked out their problems and now he was going to be leaving? She plastered a smile on her face knowing that if she faked it he wouldn't know the difference.

"That's great Nathan, when do you start?" Boy had she mastered faking happiness over the past year. She was so good she might not even be able to tell the difference.

"I start on Monday."

"Do you have everything you need like notebooks and stuff?" He shook his head no and her face lit up. "Good because I need a reason to go shopping so tomorrow we'll go."

"You don't have to do this."

"I don't have to, I want this. Did you tell work that you were going back to school?"

"Yeah actually it was Mark who suggested it, told me that I shouldn't spend my time playing around at work when no one's there but should actually go back to school since the season's still on for awhile but even after the season's over Mark said that I could try out for the traveling team or whatever it's called." She couldn't help but be happy for him when he sounded so excited about it. She reached across the table and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze before going back to her toast.

True to her word that morning after Nathan had gone back to sleep Brooke had woken him up and they were in the car and on their way to Wal-Mart Brooke's new favorite place. He didn't know why she loved that place so much but it made Brooke happy to be saving some money when she went shopping granted she took the money she saved and spent it on clothes but that was beside the point.

As they walked around the store grabbing various items Nathan saw some kids from the basketball team based on the jackets they were wearing. They spotted him and pointed before walking over to him and Brooke.

"Hey are you Nathan Scott?" The tallest one asked, he seemed to be the leader of the small group of them.

"Yeah what's it to you?" He replied letting his jackass side out. Brooke just looked at Nathan it had been awhile since he had been a jackass to anyone.

"Our friend Cameron heard about you from his brother Mark and we just wanted to say welcome to Franklin High." The guy smirked and Brooke decided to join in on the conversation.

"Hi I don't think we've been introduced I'm Brooke Davis and you are?" She asked extending her hand and turning on her charm. Nathan just smirked at the guys as the tall dark haired one turned on his charm.

"I'm Steven and this is Alex and Cameron." Brooke just smiled her charming Brooke Davis I know you're an ass but I'm a bigger bitch smile that Nathan knew too well and couldn't help but laugh a little at how oblivious these guys are being. All 4 turned and looked at him almost forgetting that he was there and Brooke just poked his side giving him the shut up look. "So Brooke are you starting at Franklin High with your friend Nathan?" Steven asked as they stepped out of the middle of the aisle.

"No I don't think so."

"Oh why not? We could always use more pretty girls like you." Steven added gently stroking her cheek with his palm. Brooke moved her head away from Steven's hand and turned on her bitchiness.

"Let me take a wild guess here; you," She started pointing her finger into Steven's chest. "Are the captain of the basketball team who thinks that he can land any girl he wants and have probably landed every girl on the crap cheerleading squad am I right?"

"Maybe but you're wrong about the crap cheerleading squad." The girl that now stood next to Cameron who seemed to be trying awfully hard to match Brooke's bitchiness.

"Let me guess you're the captain of the cheerleading squad?" The girl's face brightened and she moved so she was standing in front of Steven.

"You got that right and who are you?"

"Brooke Davis and this is my boyfriend Nathan Scott." She introduced watching Steven's face drop a little. "And I highly doubt that you have any talent because being a cheerleader is a lot more than just being pretty and flexible. And since you're captain you need to really work on your bitchiness." She turned towards Nathan a genuine smile on her face. "Are you ready to finish shopping babe?" He nodded his head and followed her leaving the 4 speechless. She loved doing that to people and she stopped and turned back to the group that was still standing there.

"Oh and Steven you couldn't handle me." She smirked while blowing him a kiss before wrapping her arm around Nathan's waist and continuing on their way. Nathan just smiled feeling a new found excitement about going to school on Monday. He just had to win the respect of his coach. He could handle anything Steven threw at him because he had already lived through it and given it to other people. He saw Steven out of the corner of his eye fuming at Brooke's rejection and blatant insult and right as Steven looked at him a furious look in his eye he mouthed, "Bring it on," before walking away with Brooke. Things were definitely going to be interesting at school on Monday and Nathan couldn't wait.

A/N: So this is kind of a weird chapter I didn't even know where I was going to take it till I finished it but it's leading up to future chapters. The 4 characters will be making a return just when I don't know…..well you know what to do r&r!


	10. Can't Catch a Break

Nathan woke up Monday morning and sighed. This was the one part about school that he didn't like. He didn't like having to get up at the crack of dawn and drag his tired self to school and learn. But today was hard because he was going to a new school where he didn't know anybody. He had never been the new kid and this feeling of uneasiness just wouldn't go away.

Brooke was already up and making breakfast by the time Nathan was up and showered. She thought that he should have a proper breakfast before heading off to school. It was weird that Nathan was going back to school but she had a surprise for him that she was going to tell him over breakfast. She had thought long and hard about it and decided that it wasn't such a bad idea to go and finish out high school. So she pulled some strings, or her parents did and she was starting school today too.

Nathan walked out of the bedroom and smiled when he saw Brooke slaving over the stove making breakfast. It was just so unlike Brooke to be the domestic type but she was trying to make things easier for them. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She turned and gently pressed her lips against his, she absolutely loved it when they had quiet moments like this. "Come on Nate we don't want to be late." He shook his head before it dawned on him.

"Wait we don't want to be late?"

"Oh I didn't tell you that I was starting school with you today?" She innocently replied trying her best to look innocent.

"No actually you didn't."

"Oh I thought I told you last night."

"There wasn't much talking last night now was there?" He asked watching her blush. He loved making her blush; it was just so different from the person he had known for so long. It was a breath of fresh air to see a new side of Brooke Davis. He felt special that he was the on that got to see that side of her. Brooke composed herself and smacked his hand. "God why are you back to being abusive, I thought you were through that phase?' He whined rubbing his stinging hand.

"Nope I will never be through that phase, now eat up we have to go." She wiped her mouth on her napkin before gathering up her dishes and putting them in the sink. Nathan quickly ate his breakfast as Brooke gathered up her bag and stepped in front of the mirror hanging by the door. She looked absolutely perfect and she smiled at her reflection before Nathan came up behind her yet again wrapping his arms around her waist. "You look perfect."

"I know." She joked pulling away from his embrace and giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Do you want to drive this morning?" He looked at her as if she was being serious, there was no way he was going to drive her car. It was too much of a girly car. "You're joking right?"

"What I thought you wouldn't want your girlfriend driving you to school."  
"I'm not driving your car." She took that as an insult and lightly shoved him before heading out of the apartment and down to the car. Nathan just smirked and followed after her. It was definitely going to be an interesting day now that Brooke was going to school with him.

When they got to school Brooke spotted the guys that they had run into at Wal-Mart and turned on her smile giving them a perky wave. Steven caught off guard slightly waved back unsure of what to make of Brooke waving. Nathan came up beside her confused. "Brooke what are you doing?"

"I'm doing what I always do." She whispered back adjusting her bag. Nathan smiled, this was the Brooke Davis he knew from back home. "Come on Nate let's get this show on the road." He nodded and they walked towards the office passing the guys who were blatantly checking out Brooke's ass as she walked away and Nathan felt a wave of jealously wash over him. He fought the urge to turn around and do something to Steven who was leading the whole group.

After they got their schedules they made their way to their first class and of course Steven and Alex were in that class and instantly trying to flirt with Brooke. She just plastered on her best smile and nodded her head never taking her eyes off the board. Nathan just sat in his seat trying not to punch Steven for being such an ass and trying to pick up his girlfriend right in front of him. This was not how Nathan pictured his day going, he thought that Steven would leave Brooke alone not try to pick her up when his supposed girlfriend sat on the other side of the room chatting away with a gaggle of girls that seemed to soak up every lie she told them.

The bell rang and Nathan got up not wanting to be around Steven anymore. He didn't know why he even wanted to come back to school, it was better when he wasn't in school. He was perfectly fine just working and spending his down time shooting hoops with the kids that lived in their building. But no his stupid dream to go pro got in the way and he just had to come back to school. He stopped and tried to calm down because he didn't need getting pissed this early in the morning.

Brooke watched as Nathan got up and nearly pushed everyone out of his way to get out of the room. She tried going after him but Steven wanted her attention. She was really getting tired of this guy thinking that he was god's gift to woman. She turned and saw the girl that had come up to Steven while they were talking in Wal-Mart and she instantly got an idea. "So Brooke what do you think about coming to our little party tonight as my date?" She turned towards Steven her sweet and innocent smile on her face.

"I don't think your girlfriend would like that." He opened his mouth to say something but she put her hand over his mouth. "Don't even try to lie to me. Don't play the master." She removed her hand and marched out of the room. Steven reminded her of Luke for some odd reason and then her mind replayed what happened with them over in her head. She looked at her schedule and tried to find her classroom but of course she wasn't very good with finding new places, that was Nathan's job so of course she was late to class and had to be embarrassed in front of the whole class. She sat in the corner and tried to stay calm because a whirlwind of emotions were coursing through her body and she just needed to stay calm.

Nathan saw her walk in late and felt bad for a millisecond before he remembered that she was talking to Steven before class ended so she was probably setting up a date with him. He couldn't believe that she would do something like that after all the shit they've been through. He thought that she was going to sit in the seat next to him but instead she set her sights on the seat in the back. She hardly looked at him and he sighed to himself. Everything was falling apart at the time when he needed them to stay together so badly. He needed to focus on basketball and not have to worry about anything else. He turned to look at her and saw that her eyes were a little glassy. 'Something's not right.' He thought to himself as he listened to the teacher talk about whatever book they were reading. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, 'I'm such an idiot.' He mentally smacked his forehead and went back to what the teacher was saying. How could he not see it? Steven was gonna play her, he was gonna play his Brooke.

Brooke tried with all her might to focus on what the teacher was saying but her mind kept drifting in and out. Thoughts of Nathan leaving her, thoughts of Luke and Peyton lying to her, Haley kissing Nathan, and Steven trying to use her ran through her mind. She didn't even know she was crying until she felt a tear on her lips. She tried blinking furiously to stop the tears from falling and failed so she shut her eyes to stop the tears from falling. Her first day was not supposed to be like this, she was supposed to just be herself able to start over but now she was being tortured by her own mind. She sighed and opened her eyes the tears not gone but not falling. She just had to make through the rest of the day.

Brooke set her bag inside the door of the apartment making her way to the bedroom. The rest of the day was not better than her first two classes. She and Nathan had become partners in Chemistry because they were new and they didn't look at each other for the whole class period. Then lunch came and Nathan sat by the jocks or was forced to by Steven leaving Brooke to sit by herself and feel like a social outcast. She sighed and let the tears fall that she had been holding in all day.

Nathan stopped running leaning against the bleachers as he tried to catch his breath. This was nothing like back home, he had never run this much not even during a game. But he was thankful that he had a good heart and didn't have to worry about not being able to play. If he didn't need this team to get him in front of the scouts he wouldn't be on damn team. Steven seemed to have it out for him or trying to befriend him he just couldn't tell with Steven because he seemed to have mood swings. The whistle blew and Nathan took off for the other side of the gym determined to out run Steven.

When Nathan came home two hours later from his shower he found the apartment strangely quiet and panicked. He rushed into the bedroom expecting to find Brooke's stuff gone but saw her sleeping soundly on the bed curled into a tight ball a pillow hugged against her body. 'She was crying, damn it!" He thought in his head as he slowly made his way to the bed. He covered her up with a blanket and gently kissed her temple. "I'm sorry." He didn't know if that helped any but he hoped that she could hear him. He was tired of screwing up with her, he wasn't going to screw up anymore. Nothing was going to tear them apart, he loved her too much to let her go.

A/N: Okay so this chapter may seem a little random but I guess it works. I don't know, I'll just let you tell me what you think.


	11. Spending Time Together

Nathan sat in the corner of the bedroom watching Brooke sleep while the clock displayed 4:34. He hadn't been able to sleep tonight and found himself just sitting and watching her sleep. He loved her so much that just seeing her upset with him hurt him. He didn't want things to be like they were back home, they had to be different so they could be different people not the people they used to be. He sighed and stood up stretching his aching body.

Nathan sat at the kitchen table looking over his completed homework making sure he had completed everything. He looked over at Brooke's bag and picked it up off the floor. He opened her notebook and found his name scribbled all over the page and little hearts drawn around some of them. He smiled and wondered what was going through her mind when she did this, it was probably before all the drama started.

He pulled out her homework and copied his answers onto her page trying to forge her handwriting the best he could. He never realized how hard it was to write like a girl but yet again girls just have to complicate things, he thought as he put her homework away. He sighed again and put his head down on the table trying to get some sleep before he had to get up and go to school. But his mind just kept going preventing him from sleep. Giving up, he went into the bedroom to find some clothes to wear and get stuff for basketball since he had forgotten to wash his other stuff. He really had to do his laundry, it seemed like he never did it. Shaking his head of the random thoughts swirling in his head he walked into the bathroom turning on the shower.

Nathan walked out of the shower wrapped only in a towel trying to find his way around the room in the dark. It was easier earlier when he didn't have one hand trying to hold up his towel. He looked over at Brooke and she seemed to be sleeping and decided that he didn't care so he threw the towel at the hamper in the corner and made his way over to the dresser.

Brooke woke up and after her eyes adjusted to the dark she made out Nathan's shape in front of the dresser and smiled when she realized that he was naked. She slid out of the bed and walked over to him wrapping her arms around his waist kissing in between his shoulder blades. Nathan smirked and turned around wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. Brooke smiled against his lips and started backing up to the bed. Nathan pulled away staring into Brooke's eyes trying to figure out what was going on when Brooke smirked. "Stop thinking and kiss me." Nathan laughed a little and dipped his head towards her and captured her lips in a passionate kiss. It didn't take long for Brooke to get tired of Nathan being in control so she took over, flipping them so she was on top. Nathan loved it when she took control she always got the cutest look on her face when she felt like she was in complete control. But of course Nathan wouldn't let her have control over too long since he was Nathan Scott and had to feel control. He flipped them again putting himself in control, it went on like this for an hour each fighting for control until they were too tired to continue anymore. Nathan fell on the bed next to Brooke breathing hard and fighting the urge to sleep. He was so tired that he just wanted to curl up in bed with her and not go anywhere but he knew that they had to go to school. He looked at the clock and sighed.

"Brooke babe we have to get up and get ready for school."

"No I'm too tired to go to school, let's call in sick."

"We have to go, come on we'll go take a nice hot shower and I'll make you breakfast." She shook her head once again and Nathan smirked rolling out of bed and standing over her. In one shift motion he had picked Brooke up and had her over his shoulder.

"Nathan put me down!" She exclaimed hitting his shoulder with her fist, Nathan just laughed and carried her into the bathroom. He set her down and turned the shower on. She just glared at his back before getting an evil smirk on her face and pushing him in the ice cold shower.

"Oh it's on now!" He exclaimed grabbing the removable shower head and spraying her with it keeping the water on ice cold.

"Nathan stop it's cold!"

"That's the point dimples." He switched the nozzle to jet and turned the water a little warmer.

"Nathan stop." She whined turning her back towards him.

"Alright I'm done you can come join me in the shower." She turned around and stomped her way in the shower a scowl fixated on her face. "See the hot water feels good." She shrugged.

"You're lucky I love you." She muttered as she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair.

"Yes I'm actually the luckiest man on earth that you love me." She smiled against her will and turned around so she was facing him.

"Alright lover boy we have to worry up and get ready for school before I change my mind about going." Nathan laughed and snapped his towel against the back of her thigh.


	12. Things Are Finally Looking Up

Brooke walked through school with a huge smile on her face. Today, she felt, was her day. Nothing was going to go wrong and she was just going to have the best day ever so far. This morning when she was with Nathan just validated the fact that Boston was not like Tree Hill. For once Brooke didn't have to succumb to the pressure of always having to fake her emotions and she found herself genuinely smiling.

She didn't care that she didn't have people to talk to because at least she wasn't thinking about the hell that was Tree Hill. She sat in her English class next to Nathan just chatting away when a new girl walked in. At least from what Brooke could tell she was the new girl because she hadn't seen her before and Brooke wanted to let her know that she wasn't alone.

The girl Brooke observed was tall almost as if she played some sport like basketball or volleyball, she wore cute designer jeans that Brooke could pick out from a mile away, her blonde hair was natural a rarity that Brooke had noticed around the school, and her smile seemed genuinely forced like Brooke's used to be back home. The girl turned away from the teacher and looked around the room before setting in front of Brooke. Brooke using her cheerleading training tapped the girl on the shoulder and the girl turned around making her ponytail almost smack Brooke in the face.

"Hi I'm Brooke Davis and this is my friend Nathan Scott. We're new here from Tree Hill and you are?"

"Jennifer Madison just transferred here from Rhode Island."

"Well Jennifer you now know the 2 other members of the 'I'm new to the city from a small town' club." The girl looked at Brooke before laughing her blue eyes twinkling.

"I'm honored I guess." Brooke smiled and turned her attention to the front as the teacher started talking about their homework. Brooke knew that today was her day and nothing was going to bring her down. Things with Nathan were going fantastically well and she might have just made a new friend.

When lunched rolled around Brooke found herself sitting with Jennifer and some of the other kids from her history class that she had made friends with during class when they were working on a group project when Nathan came over. Brooke beamed from ear to ear. It was nice hanging out with non jock people.

Nathan watched as Brooke and Jennifer laughed and joked together and he couldn't help the smile that was growing on his face. He was happy that Brooke was in a better mood than yesterday, she deserved to have things down differently than in Tree Hill. She's been through enough that finally things should be going right. He picked up his stuff ignoring the calls from Steven and walked over to Brooke and Jennifer. "Hey is this seat open?" Brooke looked up and smiled her dimples so cute that Nathan just wanted to kiss her.

"Of course it's open." Jennifer answered for Brooke who was still kinda shocked that Nathan was actually sitting with her instead of sitting with Steven and the other basketball players. She smiled and leaned against Nathan laughing at something Jennifer said, Nathan put his arm around Brooke and gave her a small squeeze, he knew how hard it is for Brooke to trust someone since what Peyton did. He smiled and laughed as Jennifer told a story from her old school.

After school Brooke kissed Nathan and ran off to hang out with Jennifer, they were going to the go to the mall and then back to the apartment to hang out. He smiled as he watched her leave, he was happy that she was finally happy.

Brooke and Jennifer walked aimlessly around the mall laughing and talking like old friends. "So Jennifer why did you move to Boston?" Jennifer looked up over her coffee cup and looked at Brooke searching her face for something.

"Well," She took a deep breath deciding that she could trust Brooke. "My parents split up and I decided to stay with my dad because my mom has problems so he moved out here for a job."

"I'm sorry." Brooke felt bad for prying into her life because she didn't know this girl that well and shouldn't have pried into her life.

"It's okay it's just hard sometimes, why are you in Boston?"

"Well since you told me your story I'll tell you mine." Brooke walked over to an open table in the food court and set her bags down setting her coffee in front of her. "I left Tree Hill because I was so heartbroken that I decided to just pack up and move. My ex-boyfriend was happy with my best friend, my best friend had her new best friend Haley so I packed up my stuff and left. I felt like I wasn't needed anymore so in the middle of the night I went to Nathan's told him that I was leaving even though at the time we barely said two words to each other."

"Why'd you tell him if you didn't talk to him?" Jennifer broke in as she leaned closer to Brooke.

"I knew that he wouldn't tell Lucas, my ex-boyfriend, Peyton, my ex-best friend, or Haley, his ex-wife."

"Wow that makes my life seem like a walk in the park."

"Yeah Tree Hill was drama city and I didn't do much to stop it." She joked not wanting to make herself look like an angel. "But yeah that's the reason I felt Tree Hill."

"It must suck to have your best friend turn against you."

"Yeah it did but now that I look at it, maybe it was supposed to happen. I mean maybe she and Lucas were supposed to fall in love so then I would be with Nathan."

"You guys seem like a good match."

"You think?"

"Yeah." Brooke smiled and noticed a sad look in Jennifer's eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing." Brooke titled her head and took a good hard look at Jennifer and knew she was lying.

"You know you can tell me." Brooke offered hoping to let her know that even though they've only known each other for less than 24 hours Brooke felt like Jennifer was going to be a good friend.

"It's nothing."

"Alright, well how about we had back to my place and hang out."

"Sounds like fun." Brooke smiled and together she and Jennifer went back to Brooke and Nathan's apartment to hang out. 'Maybe Boston's not like Tree Hill.' Brooke thought as she and Jennifer hung out that afternoon while Nathan was at basketball practice.


	13. The Truth

Brooke sat at the kitchen table across from Jennifer as they worked on their history papers together. Something was wrong with Jennifer and Brooke kinda wanted to know what it was because to be honest she didn't like not knowing anything. The last time she was left out of the loop was when the whole triangle thing went down. She shook her head trying to rid her mind of the hurtful memories, she knew that at one point she was going to have get over it and slowly she was but it still hurt that someone who claimed to be her best friend and was there for her through everything could do something like that.

Brooke looked back down at the blank paper in front of her and sighed looking up and noticed that Jennifer was in the kitchen at the coffee maker expertly throwing coffee in and starting it up. It took Brooke at least 4 hours to figure out how to work the blasted thing. Brooke laughed at the memory of her trying to start the coffee maker up the first time after she bought. Her laughter was caught off by Jennifer's phone ringing.

"Hey could you get that for me?" Brooke nodded and reached across the table looking at the caller I.D. before answering.

"Hello Jennifer's phone this is Brooke speaking?" Jennifer turned around from the coffee maker and shook her head. Brooke was certainly odd at times.

"This is Jake can I talk to Jennifer?" Brooke opened her mouth to make a smart comment before realization set it and the familiarity of the voice hit her.

"Jake as in Jagielski?"

"Yeah, how do you now my last name?"

"It's Brooke Davis you idiot!" Brooke exclaimed finally earning Jennifer's full attention. She turned around after switching on the coffee maker and slowly made her way to the table curious to see if she couldn't hear the conversation Brooke was going to have with Jake.

"What are you doing answer my girlfriend's phone?" Jake asked confused as to why Brooke was a) with his girlfriend and b) not home in tree hill.

"Jennifer's your girlfriend? Doesn't that get confusing since that is your daughter's name to?"

"No we manage, still haven't answered my question Davis."

"Well if you could come over I could explain the big whole long story to you, if you're in Boston that is?"

"Where do you live?" Brooke smiled at Jennifer and rattled off her address before hanging up and handing the phone back to Jennifer who had a stunned look on her face.

"He'll be here in 10 minutes which is perfect because Nathan will be home in 15." Brooke clapped her hands excitedly before putting her books and notebooks away in her bag. Jennifer looked at Brooke and yet again shook her head kinda curious as to how Brooke and Jake knew each other.

True to his word Jake arrived at the apartment 10 minutes after he hung up with Brooke still somewhat confused as to why Brooke Davis was in Boston and hanging out with his girlfriend. He raised his hand to knock but the door was flung open by none other than Brooke Davis who squealed and threw her arms around him. Jake was surprised by her throwing herself into his arms after not seeing him for over a year and not really knowing him. But he didn't mind the hug from someone who came from Tree Hill and knew how bad Tree Hill could be. He set her down and smiled at her studying the smile on her face noticing that it wasn't faked and forced, it was genuine. 'She sure has changed since the last time I saw her.' Jake thought to himself as he kissed Jen's cheek and gave her a hug. He really did miss his girlfriend while she was at school. Brooke settled down in the chair across from the couch watching the clock hoping that Nathan would be home when he said he would so he could see Jake too.

"So Davis, I was promised a story if I came over here so start from the beginning." She laughed at Jake before throwing a pillow at him.

"Well let's see when you left I was still with Lucas and about a month after you left he and Peyton decided to sleep together and then not tell me. So of course Luke and I broke up and I was a total bitch to Peyton didn't even want to look at her almost kicked her off the cheerleading squad. But for a little bit everything was okay I wasn't speaking to Lucas, Peyton, or Haley for that matter since she picked Peyton's side saying that she couldn't help it that she and Luke were destined to be together. But then Nathan shocked everyone by ending it with Haley completing even filing for a divorce and no one knew why except Haley and she wasn't telling anyone, I think it was because of the tour and Chris but I don't know the facts. So then about 3 months after that I got tired of dealing with all the rumors about me and Nathan, me and Luke and all that crap so I decided to pack up and leave." Brooke stopped and took a sip of her coffee and looked up noticing Nathan was standing there.

"She came to the apartment and told me she was leaving knowing that I wouldn't tell anyone because I wasn't really talking to anyone. She kissed me in the middle of the night and left me standing there wondering what the hell had possessed Brooke Davis to kiss me after years of not even talking to each other. She called me and asked if I wanted to meet her out here and I decided that a change of scenery was a good idea packed everything up and came out here and we've been here ever since." Nathan finished for her pushing himself away from the door jam and going towards Brooke. "It's a surprise to say the least to see you again Jagielski but yet again this whole thing has been a boat load of surprises." Nathan and Jake shared a brief handshake and Nathan nodded at Jen.

"So wait you two are together?"

"Yep about 4 months now, right?" Nathan asked looking over at Brook who was thinking about it in her head.

"I think so, wow we're pathetic we don't even remember how long we've been together. But moving on to more interesting topics like let's say you two." She said turning her attention away from Nathan and back towards Jake and Jen who was slightly blushing.

"We're boring, we met, starting dating and here we are." Jen replied hoping that Brooke would be satisfied but both Nathan and Jake both shook their heads knowing that Brooke never was satisfied with just the basics, no she had to have every dramatic detail.

"Alright you really want to know the whole story?" Brooke sat up straighter in her chair and smiled clapping her hands like a excited toddler. "My parents thought that it would be best if I moved here with my grandma because she needed help around her house and I needed a fresh start of sorts. So I left Tree Hill with Jenny and a came here for a couple of months before my grandma wanted to go to Rhode Island something about a list and while we were sightseeing I met Jen who was working at the coffee place we stopped at. We started seeing each other while I was in town and when I came back to Boston with my grandma and then about a year later here we are."

"Wow, such a romantic story." Brooke gushed happy to see Jake smiling, happy, and in love after the whole Peyton thing.

"Yeah." Jen said looking down at her feet, she wasn't sure how well they were going to take the rest of the story.

"So your dad's okay with you dating Jake? I mean with everything going on and all." Jake turned towards Jen a confused look on his face.

"Well you see, I kinda lied to you this morning. I didn't know how to tell anyone what had really happened so I just lied and told you what I told you."

"You can trust me, I won't tell anyone." Jen took a deep breath and Jake squeezed her hand knowing that she was probably nervous."My parents didn't get divorced, my dad died and my mom married some rich guy who was a total ass. So after I turned 18, I moved out and moved in with Jake therefore bringing me to Boston and to school."

"Wow."

"Yeah." Brooke stood up and wrapped her arms around Jen.

"We should go out to dinner." Nathan announced wanting to make everyone shift their focuses onto something happy.

"We should, come on J. Madison, we have to get pretty for dinner." Jen smiled and followed Brooke into the bedroom leaving Jake and Nathan alone.

"Brooke's back to being Brooke isn't she?" Jake asked happy to see Brooke happy after he saw her go through before he left.

"Yeah except there's nothing fake behind that smile." Nathan replied sincerely as Jake nodded his head, both knew that Boston had changed Brooke to be more genuine and being in Boston was finally worth all the drama they had encountered through the months.


	14. A Peace Visit

Brooke was sitting at the kitchen table playing with Jenny and laughing with Jake while Jen was at work and Nathan was sitting in front of the TV watching a Duke Basketball game. Jake smiled as he watched Brooke playing with his daughter, she was actually smiling and it was nice to see Brooke Davis being genuine instead of being fake. He stood from the table and went over to join Nathan on the couch. Nathan looked up and acknowledged him sitting next to him before going back to the game. Neither boy noticed that Brooke had stopped playing with Jenny and was now standing in front of the door uttering speechless and shocked unable to move or make a sound. Jake finally looked up during a commercial and smacked Nathan's attention towards where Brooke was standing Nathan shot up and flew towards the door and nearly fell over in shock. There was no way that Luke and Peyton were standing in front of them with unsure smiles on their faces. Jake looked up from the TV and fell off the couch he was trying to get up so fast.

There they stood Luke and Peyton outside, Nathan and Brooke inside and Jake lying on the floor. Jenny walked up and instantly knew that something was wrong and cleared her throat grabbing everyone's attention. Brooke looked away from Peyton and smiled at Jenny thankful that she was here. Brooke ushered everyone in feeling that she should be kind no matter what they did to her. Luke looked around the apartment and felt better that she wasn't living in a slum.

"So I guess I'll be the first to talk. I'm Jenny Jake's girlfriend." Jenny stated taking a step forward and extended her hand.

"I'm Luke Nathan's brother and this is Peyton my girlfriend." Luke replied shaking her head and nudging Peyton to do the same who was still shocked that Jake was standing Brooke's apartment. Peyton smiled and nodded shaking her head as well still trying to find her voice.

"So I'm gonna jump straight to the point since my friend seems to have lost her voice what are you two doing here?" Brooke looked over at Jenny and thanked her with her eyes thankful that she had such a great friend to ask what she wanted to ask but couldn't find her voice.

"Well it's sort of a peace visit of sorts I guess." Luke replied speaking directly to Nathan and Brooke bringing them out of their stupor. Nathan narrowed his eyes at Luke and motioned to the bedroom before walking in there himself. Nathan shut the door and instantly attacked Luke.

"What are you doing here? What part of stay out of my life did you not understand?"

"I'm here only to make things right Nathan. Its not like I'm here telling you to go back to Haley or anything."

"Yeah like I would ever do that." Nathan scoffed sitting on the edge of the bed. "Seriously what are you doing here?" Luke looked at him and sat in the chair across from the bed.

"Peyton and I were thinking about how bad things were when Brooke left that we mainly she wanted to come out here and apologize. Things back home have been rough since you guys left and I was hoping that maybe Peyton would feel better if she at least apologized to Brooke."

"What do you mean things are rough?"

"I don't know at first everything was okay minus you and Brooke being there but then Peyton got all depressed and started pulling herself away from everybody and her and Haley got into it with Peyton blaming her and Brooke leaving when you guys came home to visit last time and Haley kissed you. I felt really bad about that to, I didn't think Haley would ever try to kiss you and she shouldn't have done that to Brooke. She's been through enough that she didn't deserve what Haley did. I just hope that you can possibly forgive me and Peyton?"

"Forgiving you and Peyton is easy for me but it's Brooke you need to be talking to and I swear to God if I find out that you told Haley where to find me I'll kill you."

"She has no idea were here when Peyton stopped talking to her I had to stop talking to her." Nathan nodded relived that Haley wouldn't be able to find them. She was the last person he wanted to see ever again. Nathan stood up and hugged his brother happy that something was resolved. "Alright what's Jake doing here?"

"Well he lives out here and Jenny goes to school with us."

"Gotcha." Luke smiled and both walked out of the bedroom and into the dead silent living room. Jenny was watching the game with Jake while Brooke and Peyton stood frozen in the same spots as when Luke and Nathan left them there. Nathan sighed and went up behind Brooke gently kissing her behind the ear brining her back to reality.

"You should hear her out; she might just want to apologize." She turned slightly and sighed knowing she was right. But right now she didn't want to talk to her, she looked Luke and he knew that he would have to talk to her and he might as well get it over with. He nodded his head and she walked over to Peyton.

"You and I will talk later." Peyton nodded and went over to talk to Jake and Jenny while Brooke and Luke walked outside the apartment and down the stairs. "What are you doing here?"

"Peyton needed to apologize to you so maybe then she could get out of her depression. She felt horrible after she left the last time you and Nathan were in town because of what Haley did. She even reamed Haley out for it saying that you didn't deserve that and that she should get over the fact that Nathan was over her and stop trying to ruin your life. She said you had been through enough."

"She shouldn't be the only one feeling bad and you know it. I'm not as mad at her as I am at you. She was just following her heart and I can't really blame me for that but you shouldn't said no, you should've walked away. You are more to blame then she is because truth is at least she went after what she wanted unlike me."

"What?" Luke asked stopping and facing Brooke wondering where her last statement had come from.

"Nothing don't worry about it."

"No what did you mean?"

"That's none of your business anyway."

"Come on, we're over what's it gonna hurt unless it's Nathan?" Brooke looked away and Luke's mouth fell open. "You've liked Nathan all along haven't you?"

"Not while I was with you, I actually loved you." She replied and Luke sighed. He felt bad for the way things ended between them and he didn't know how to make her know that it wasn't about her.

"Ya know about the whole Peyton thing, I know that I hurt you and I'm sorry I should've broken up with you when I started having feelings for Peyton and then maybe you could've saved Nathan and Haley." Luke honestly replied, he knew from the get go that Haley and Nathan weren't for each other because Haley just wanted to change Nathan into her personal whipping boy and Nathan well he would just be Nathan. Brooke nodded knowing that he was right about Nathan and Haley but she would never say that to Nathan.

"How has Peyton been since I left?"

"At first she was just upset but after what happened with Haley she was depressed only leaving her room to go to school. You really need to talk to her." Brooke nodded and decided that tomorrow she and Peyton would talk. They turned and started back towards the apartment before people started to worry well mainly Nathan started to worry.

"Did you and Nathan talk it out?"

"Yep we're all good, all that's left is you and Peyton."

"That might take longer than you may think." Brooke replied opening the door to the apartment and walking into Peyton and Jen playing with Jenny and Jake and Nathan watching the game as if nothing was weird at all. Peyton looked up when Brooke and Luke walked back in and Brooke nodded her head so Peyton stood up and slowly made her way over to Brooke. "Tomorrow morning you and I are going to breakfast to talk, okay?" Peyton nodded and Brooke smiled giving the girl a hug, no matter what they've been through Peyton was still Brooke's best friend. The rest of the night the group watched movies and played games and by the end of the night Jake and Jen had taken Jenny home and Luke and Peyton were sleeping in the living room while Brooke and Nathan were sitting in the bedroom talking in hushed voices about what had happened this afternoon.

"So he really stopped talking to Haley?" Brooke asked not believing what Nathan was telling her.

"He stopped talking to Haley because of Peyton. I mean that says a lot about how bad they feel about everything even what happened when we were in Tree Hill for the holidays." Nathan replied hoping to get through to Brooke that Peyton was really trying to be Brooke's friend again. "She's really trying babe and you can't ignore the fact that she almost gave up her relationship with Luke just to bitch Haley out."

"It still doesn't change the fact that she lied to me and yes maybe I need to get over it but Luke was the first guy that I really loved and both of them broke my heart. I can't just forget that Nate."

"I know." He replied gently rubbing her arm knowing what it was like to have your heart ripped out and stomped on by someone who cared. "But maybe it's time to turn over a new leaf; I mean you don't even live in the same state as her anymore. She and Luke are happy together and I'm hoping that you and I are happy together so what does it matter anymore?" Brooke looked at Nathan and could see the underlying vulnerability of her telling him that no matter how happy he made her the "Luke/Peyton" thing still made her want to curl into a ball and cry about what 2 people she cared about had done to her.

"I guess it doesn't really matter anymore since I ended up with you." She commented leaning forward and capturing his lips in a searing kiss that made Nathan pull her flush against him and roll them over so he was on top. The rest of the night Brooke didn't think about what Peyton and Luke did to her only about what Nathan was doing to her.

The next morning Brooke rolled out of bed and threw on some sweats and a t-shirt before she and Peyton made their way out to her car and went to a local diner by where Brooke works. They sat down in the booth that she and Nathan usually sat in when they met for lunch and Brooke couldn't help but smile. "Thinking about your sexual escapades with your boy toy last night?" Peyton joked breaking the ice between the two, Brooke couldn't help but blush.

"Were we that loud?"

"Kinda but don't worry I turned on the TV so ya know Luke didn't get stupid and go in there demanding you stop or something." Peyton looked up and both girls fell silent trying to figure out what to say.

"You know I should thank you."

"Thank me?"

"Yeah had you and Luke not fallen in love I wouldn't be with Nathan and he's the best thing that's happened to me."

"I'm sorry that we hid it from you. I'm sorry that we lied to you. I'm sorry that I hurt you after all we've been through. I'm sorry that I fell for your boyfriend while you were with him."

"That's all I needed to hear." Brooke whispered as a weight was lifted from her shoulder.

"What?"

"All I needed to hear was that you were sorry for hurting me and that you lied to me and that your timing was a little off. You couldn't help the feelings you were feeling for Luke just like I couldn't help but fall for Nathan over the past couple of months. It's really great seeing you Peyton even after I heard you bitched Haley out." Peyton looked at Brooke and joined her in her laughter.

"She was just so confident that Nathan was going to come back to her after her kissing him and it just so annoying so I bitched her out and let me tell you Luke didn't talk to me for 3 days after it but for once it was worth it. Hoes over bros." Brooke looked up and smiled knowing that they at least made a dent in fixing their friendship. Brooke paid the bill and both headed back to the apartment feeling as if the dark cloud hanging over their friendship was getting a little bit lighter.


	15. Starting Over Again

Brooke sat on her bed and watched Nathan sleeping next to her before glancing up at the clock. It was 3 in the morning the day after she and Peyton had gone to lunch and Brooke was feeling a little weird because she and Peyton had been on the outs for almost a year and now they were just going to pick up the pieces and go back to the way it was before. Brooke didn't know if they could ever go back to the way it was before she and Luke got together.

Sure, Brooke wanted nothing more than for things to get back to some state of normalcy but how does one go about doing that? How does someone totally erase the pain from their hearts and memory and just start over? She looked over at Nathan again and smiled happy that Luke and Nathan were at least trying to make their brother thing work. Looking at the two of them together after she and Peyton had gotten back from their little peace talk gave Brooke hope that she and Peyton could be just like that and go back to normal.

But then again Brooke and Peyton's friendship was anything but normal. Peyton was the only family that Brooke had for the longest time and Brooke was Peyton's shoulder to lean on when things got tough after her mom died. Brooke could remember countless times when Peyton would call in the middle of the night and no matter what Brooke was there for her and together they overcame whatever was bringing Peyton down. Yet the one time when Brooke needed Peyton the most was the time that she could barely look at Peyton.

The first couple of nights after Brooke had found out about Peyton and Luke hooking up behind her back was hard for Brooke because she had no one to lean on. She would reach for the phone and sometimes even go as far as dialing Peyton's number but then reality would kick in and tell her that the one person she was going to call was the person who made her feel that way. Suddenly the Kelly Clarkson song, _"Low"_popped into Brooke's head and she found herself humming a few bars of the song that was the anthem for that moment in Brooke's life.

She watched Nathan stir at the sound of her humming and couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. Sure she and Nathan had their rough times but that didn't mean that Brooke didn't love him. Nathan was the person who made her want to fix things with Peyton, not because Luke was his brother, but because he made her realize that she needed someone besides him to rely on. Brooke was not the kind of person to completely walk away from someone who hurt her because she knew what it was like to be completely alone and she wouldn't even wish that on her worst enemy.

Thinking about being completely alone somehow made Brooke think about her parents and how the only contact she had had with them since they moved to California almost 2 years ago was to tell them that she was moving to Boston to start over, she even gave them her address in hopes that they would want to keep in touch with her. But yet again the dollar signs overpowered her and she hadn't heard from her parents which for some reason brought a tear to her eye. The only one who understood what Brooke felt about her parents was Peyton and yet again Brooke couldn't overcome the betrayal feeling she felt when thinking about Peyton sometimes.

Nathan finally woke up and looked over at Brooke and then the clock wondering what was going on and why she was up at 3 in the morning. He turned over and looked at her as she starred off seeming to focus on a certain part of blank wall across the room. Nathan sat up and looked at Brooke trying to grab her attention.

Brooke noticed Nathan looking at her and shook her head bringing her back into reality. She smiled at him and noticed that not even 5 minutes had gone by. "What are you doing up?"

"What are you doing up?"

"I've been up all night."

"What's wrong?" Nathan asked instantly worried that something had happened between Brooke and Peyton during their brunch earlier.

"Nothing, just thinking."

"About?"

"Peyton and I, if we can really go back to the way things were before all the drama went down. I mean I'm happy she's happy with Luke and all but still sometimes that little voice pulls into my head saying that she was the one that made me run."

"Brooke," Nathan started searching his mind for the right thing to say. "Things between Peyton and you won't go back to the way it was before too much has happened for that to happen. This is the time when you start over, turn over the leaf, start a new chapter, whatever saying you like. You're both in different places and now your friendship will be different."

"How come it's so easy for you and Luke?"

"Brooke, before all the drama went down things between Luke and me was strained. We've never had a great relationship and now we're trying to make the brothers thing work. Peyton and you have been friends since I can remember." Brooke smiled thinking back at the first time that Peyton and she had met Nathan.

"Still, what am I supposed to do about the little voice in my head?"

"It'll go away with time. You just need to focus on maybe having a relationship with Peyton." Brooke looked at Nathan actually taking in everything he said and seeing that there was some truth to it.

"When did you get so smart?" Nathan just shrugged and pulled Brooke close to him both of them slowly drifting off into a light sleep. Brooke woke up a little later and smiled, she had come to a decision before she fell asleep; she was going to make it work with Peyton because Brooke wanted her best friend back. She looked over at Peyton and both smiled a mutual agreement reached without words. It wasn't going too easy for them be friends again but both were willing to make an effort.

A/N: A little filler chapter of sorts…….the next couple of chapters are going to be a little on the dramatic side but I hope you enjoyed this chapter……R&R!


	16. Dreams Come True

Brooke and Nathan sat in the living room face to face each with huge smiles on their faces because in Nathan's hand was an envelope from Duke University and finally Nathan started to open it. His eyes scanned the paper for a few seconds before he shot up and exclaimed making Brooke jump up and grab the letter from him. 'He got in!' She exclaimed in her head and felt so proud of Nathan for getting in to his dream school. "I'm so proud of you." She told him as he picked her up and spun her around.

"I have to go tell Mark!" Nathan set Brooke down and rushed out of the apartment leaving Brooke to finally realize that Nathan getting into Duke meant, Duke was in North Carolina and they lived in Boston. The smile on her face slipped away as she realized that Nathan would be going back to North Carolina while she stayed in Boston and there was no way she could leave Boston because her clothing line Clothes Over Bros was finally getting off the ground and her line was set to premiere in New York during fashion week that there was no way that she would have time to pack everything up and go back to North Carolina and finish everything for the line.

All the thoughts in Brooke's head were starting to give her a headache so she reached for the phone and dialed Peyton's number hoping that she wasn't with Luke because Brooke really needed her friend right now since Jen and Jake were out of town to go see Jake's parents. After the 3rd ring Brooke heard Peyton's voice on the other line.

"Hello?"

"It's me." Brooke hated how depressed she sounded.

"Brooke, what's wrong?"

"Nathan got into Duke."

"Brooke that's great!"

"Yeah Peyton it's great that he's going back to North Carolina." Peyton's smile and happiness for Nathan vanished as soon as Peyton heard North Carolina.

"Well why don't you come back with him?"

"Peyton I can't, my line is finally getting off the ground and there's so much to do for the launch of the line that I don't have time to pack everything up and head back to North Carolina. I know it makes me sound like a selfish bitch but for once in my life I'm going to follow my dream."

"Brooke you aren't a selfish bitch just because you're making your dream come true but Nathan got accepted to Duke and he's probably going to jump at the chance to go, so what are you going to do?"

"I don't know Peyton. I know what's going to happen when he goes back, he's going to find some amazing cheerleader and fall madly in love with her and it'll be Brooke who? Long distance relationships don't work out in the end Peyt, so part of me is wondering if I shouldn't just break it off with Nathan so he follows his dream without worrying about little old me."

"Brooke…"

"What are my other options Peyton? Tell him not to go to Duke? Tell him that I don't want him to follow his dream so he can stay with me and watch me follow mine? I'm not going to be like Haley."

"You don't have to break up with him, tell him not to go to Duke, or make him watch you follow yours. You can make it work it'll just take work Brooke and since when does Brooke Davis give up on something she wants?"

"Peyt, what if he finds someone better than me?"

"Brooke I know that Nathan loves you more than anything in the world he's not going to find someone better than you."

"I don't know what to do anymore."

"I have a suggestion, talk to Nathan about all of this."

"No! I couldn't do that because he'll feel bad for getting into Duke and I can't do that."

"You have to have faith in Nathan and your relationship or else it won't work."

"Thanks Peyton."

"It's nothing."

"Well Nathan's home so I'll talk to you later." Brooke hung up just as Nathan opened the door and walked in his previous smile replaced with a worried smile. "Hey what's wrong?"

"Mark just made me realize what getting into Duke really meant."

"And what was that?"

"It means that I would have to leave you."

"Nathan going to Duke is your dream."

"I know but I don't want to lose what we've worked so hard for."

"I don't want to lose you either but I won't make you choose between me and your dream. I'm willing to put our relationship on hold while you go to Duke and do your thing and I do mine."

"I don't want to do that."

"I know Nathan it's just an option, I mean we could try and make it work." Nathan was silent for a few moments thinking about what he could say to make this whole situation better.

"We have sometime before we have to make a decision so let's just enjoy our last couple of months before the years over, okay?" Brooke nodded and sat at the kitchen table trying to work on her homework trying to take her mind off of the whole Duke thing. Nathan too sat at the kitchen table working on his own homework but he couldn't stop thinking about how things were going to change if he decided that going to Duke was the best option for him because to be honest his priorities have changed drastically since he decided that he was going to Duke then onto the NBA.

That night as Brooke lie in bed next to a sleeping Nathan she yet again found herself thinking about them and how much she did not want to be like Haley who wanted Nathan to wait for her while she went off and did her music thing. Right then at 2:33 in the morning of November 18th Brooke decided that no matter what Nathan was going to do whatever his heart desired and she was going to stand by him through thick and thin. She smiled at Nathan's sleeping form and slid down further into the covers and wrapped her arms around Nathan as she drifted off to sleep.

Nathan woke up shortly after Brooke drifted off to sleep and turned so he was facing her, he couldn't believe how lucky he had become since moving in with Brooke. He just wished that everything would work out in the end for them because losing Brooke didn't sit well with Nathan, actually it made Nathan physically sick every time a thought of losing Brooke entered his mind.

The next day at school Brooke and Nathan seemed to be polar opposites with their moods, Brooke having a huge smile on her face and Nathan having a blank look on his face for most of the day and it was starting to worry Brooke because Nathan should be the one in a fantastic mood not her. During English Nathan couldn't shake his mood for the life of him and it was starting to bother him because it wasn't like he and Brooke had broken up or anything.

"Hey Nate what's wrong?" Leave it to Brooke to pick up on his mood and immediately try and make it better.

"I don't know." Brooke looked at him with an eyebrow cocked wondering how could someone not know what was wrong with them. "I really don't know what's wrong."

"Everything's fine Nate, so stop worrying and just be happy. You got into Duke after all." Nathan finally smiled for the first time all day and wrapped his arms around Brooke glad for her to try and lighten the mood. "Plus we're celebrating tonight so get ready to be happy babe." Nathan looked at her and wanted to make a smart ass remark but with just one look Brooke knew what he was going to say and swatted his chest lightly laughing at him as they walked to their next class together.

"So what are we doing tonight to celebrate?" Nathan asked as they sat down in Chemistry watching everybody file in behind them.

"It's a surprise."

"Like that word's gonna make me stop asking about it."

"Just because you ask me doesn't mean I'll answer." Nathan smirked and leaned in so one could hear them.

"Don't think that I don't know how to get what I want out of you."

"Bring it on Nathan; I'm ready for a challenge." She replied her face only millimeters away from his, Nathan smirked and leaned close to her ear again lightly breathing on it as he spoke.

"You're on." Brooke shivered slightly as his breath warmed her ear and tickled her slightly, she was sure going to enjoy the best that Nathan had to offer but no matter what he did he wasn't going to find out what Brooke had in store for their little Friday night celebration.

After Chemistry was over Nathan and Brooke went their separate ways with Nathan going to PE and Brooke going to History with Jen. "Hey I talked to Jake about the party tonight and he's in."

"Good now don't say anything in front of Nathan because I want it to be a total surprise." Jen smiled and nodded her head laughing on the inside about how Brooke didn't know that Jen was also helping Nathan plan a little celebration of his own for her. She loved how much Brooke and Nathan cared about each other that they were celebrating their achievement and Jen was sure that tonight was going to be perfect with all the things that Brooke had planned and Nathan had planned.

Jen walked into the cafeteria and spotted Nathan without Brooke next to him and she made a b line towards him sliding into the seat next to him. "I talked to Jake and he said that Luke and Peyton are at our place waiting for the party tonight."

"Good and Brooke knows nothing right?" Jen smiled and nodded yet again laughing on the inside at the two of them that knew nothing of what the other was doing. Jen got up and moved across from Nathan so Brooke wouldn't think that anything was going because Nathan had been planning this little surprise for almost a week now while Brooke had just decided the night before to do all of this for Nathan.

Brooke arrived home at the apartment without Nathan since he had some basketball thing and it gave Brooke time to finish getting everything ready, she wanted tonight to be perfect. She smiled when there was a knock on the front door and rushed over flinging the door open revealing Deb, Keith, Karen, and Cooper all with huge smiles on their faces. Brooke motioned for them to come in as she rushed into the bedroom to lay out the outfit suggestion for Nathan that she had picked out in the middle of the night and left a note for him to meet them at Jake's place.

Jake opened the door and smiled at Brooke and all the adults with her as he let them in and as he closed the door he winked at Jen giving her the signal to go pick up Nathan and take them to their party location. The group made small talk catching up while Jake waited for Jen to text him telling him that everything was all set for Jake to suggest that they head over to the restaurant for dinner and when Jen texted him that everything was set Jake jumped and they made their way to the restaurant now none of them knew that this was also for Brooke and Jake couldn't wait to surprise his new best friends. When they got to the restaurant Nathan and Jen met them outside and Nathan's jaw hit the floor when he saw Deb, Keith, Cooper, and Karen get out of the car with Brooke.

"Surprise!" He looked at both Jen and Jake and each sported a smirk on their face. "I thought I would invite your family out here to celebrate you getting into Duke." Both Nathan and Brooke looked at Jake and Jen as they shared a not so silent giggle at their two friends. "What's so funny?"

"Well you see we've been playing double agents with the two of you. You see Nathan has a surprise for you too for ya know you getting your line off the ground and surprise they happen to fall on the same day." Jake chuckled as both Brooke and Nathan smiled at each other hugging each other happy that the other had gone to so much trouble.

"How about we go eat and celebrate?" Cooper asked his stomach raging with hunger breaking Nathan and Brooke's hug. Nathan laughed and nodded his head letting Brooke go ahead of him so he could hug his mom and Karen since they had made the trek out to see him. He couldn't believe that Brooke had gone to this much trouble for him just being accepted to Duke.

"Congrats Nathan I know how much getting into Duke means to you." Nathan smiled and hugged Karen happy that she was in his life after all the drama that went down between him and Luke over the years. Karen then walked into the restaurant to find Brooke and congratulate her for making her fashion dream come year. After Nathan hugged everyone Deb pulled Nathan's arm telling him to stay back because she wanted to talk to him.

"Before we go inside I just wanted to tell you how proud of you I am and I love you." Nathan smiled and hugged his mom leaving his arm around her shoulder as they walked into the restaurant and towards the rest of the group. Brooke smiled even more when she saw Nathan with his mom, it always made Brooke happy to see Nathan happy but something about his smile made Brooke smile even more.

The rest of the night was spent laughing and reminiscing as they celebrated Nathan's admittance to Duke and Brooke finally doing something with her life. For now it was good to have fun and not have to worry about anything except what was going on in that moment of time. All thoughts of the next year were pushed out of Brooke's mind as Nathan wrapped his arm around her waist. At least at this moment in time everything was good and drama free.


	17. Go For Your Dreams

Brooke looked at the calendar in front of her; the bright red numbers were screaming at her that there was only fifty-six days left of school until she was a high school graduate. She sighed and looked down at the Duke Acceptance letter which had bold black letters telling her that Nathan had to make his decision and let them know. She had been debating it over and over since he got the letter and she had finally decided that she was not going to stand in the way of Nathan following his dream. She was going to put their relationship on the back burner so that he could go and do his thing and she hoped that in the end they would be sharing their success with each other.

Nathan sat at work watching a little kid run around and pester his mom to buy him random things that he saw. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, he knew that graduation was vastly approaching and that he was going to make up his mind about Duke. He was so excited when he got the letter that for weeks he debated if Duke really was his dream now or was just his dream back then. He knew that he and Brooke were going to have sit down and talk about it because they were a team now, he couldn't just make a decision without consulting her first it wasn't' fair to her. He wished that they could both get what they wanted and she could go with him but he knew that she had too much invested here with getting her business degree and starting her clothing line. He couldn't ask her to give it all up and follow him back to North Carolina so he could accomplish his dream. He sighed again and hoped that she would be the one standing next to him when all was said and done.

That night when Nathan came home from work Brooke was in the kitchen warming up some dinner for him. Nathan smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist kissing the back of her head. It was comforting to have a warm meal when he came home whether it is from practice or work. He laughed at how well they played the married couple. Brooke looked up at Nathan as he finished the rest of his water and pushed the Duke letter over to him. He looked at the letter and back at her wondering what she was trying to get at.

"You should call them." He sighed and pushed his plate away from him. "You need to let them know that you're coming."

"I'm what?"

"You heard me. I'm gonna stand by and watch you throw away your dreams over me Nathan. I don't want you to look at me with hate because I told you to stay here with me. I want you to go for your dreams."

"How do you know Duke is still my dream?" He shot back wondering why she was all of a sudden pushing him to go to Duke.

"Nathan I saw the way your eyes lit up when you got the letter from your mom. Don't give me that 'How do you know' crap. I know and I'm telling you that I want you to go to Duke and be the amazing basketball player that I know you are."

"I don't want to leave you here by yourself."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be here doing my thing while supporting you. I'll always be there for you even if you're off with someone else."

"I'm not gonna break up with you just because I'm going back to North Carolina."

"I'm not saying you are. I'm saying that I'm always gonna be there for you."

"I still don't know, there's so much to think about."

"Forget about everything but you and what your heart is telling you. All that matters right now is you and what you want. For right now, go back to the Nathan you were when you made Varsity sophomore year." Nathan smiled and shook his head at her. He's changed so much since then that he didn't know if he could go back to that time.

"Brooke,"

"No Nathan don't give me another excuse. Give me one reason why you can't go to Duke and it better not be me." She looked at him waiting for his answer.

"You're pretty amazing you know that." He stated after a few moments of silence, Brooke, not wanting to toot her own horn just smiled at him and stood up clearing his plate from the table. "I love you." He whispered pulling her towards him and kissing her gently.

"I love you too."

"We can do this."

"Yes we can. I'll be there at almost every game that I can with my foam finger and face paint." He laughed knowing that she wasn't kidding.

"I guess you'll have to start saving for all those plane trips now."

"I guess I will." She joked wrapping her arms around his neck as they stood there in the middle of the kitchen.

"You sure you're okay with this?" He asked a little while later while they were both working at the kitchen table.

"I know that it's going to be hard with the distance and all but I think that in the end it'll be worth it. Jenny will just have to be ready to listen to me go on and on for hours." Nathan laughed picturing Jenny listening to Brooke go on and on about how much she missed him and all that other stuff. "Plus this way when you get drafted into the NBA, I'll have been working for so long that I could probably retire and live off of you and be the great sideline wife."

"The great sideline wife?"

"Yeah ya know that wife that's always at the game cheering on her husband, the one that always gets her picture taken because she looks so good no matter how old she is."

"You'd have to retire for that?"

"Well yeah, I can't have a job and be the great sideline wife. My job would get in the way and then I would lose my title." Brooke replied dead serious as if it was actually her plan for her life.

"You're kidding right?" Brooke looked at him with the 'duh!' look in her eye.

"Of course I'm kidding. Do you really think that I'm going to be sitting around the house doing nothing while you're off making money? I don't think so honey, I'm gonna be working and becoming the next Martha Steward in a sense but much cuter and funnier without the jail time of course." Nathan shook his head and laughed, no matter how well he knew her and how much time he spent with her, Brooke was always surprising him.


	18. Cooper's Graduation Generosity

Peyton and Luke looked between them sharing a devious smile as they pulled their air horns out of the plastic bag and pulled the key to Brooke and Nathan's apartment key out and opened the door. They silently crept through the apartment to the closed door that led to Brooke and Nathan's room where they knew the couple was sleeping. One nod from Luke and Peyton opened the door waiting for Luke to raise his air horn before pressing the trigger. They watched as Brooke and Nathan sprang apart flying off the bed and both landing on the floor. They burst out laughing as Brooke stood up reaching for the lamp next to their bed.

"What the hell?" She asked when Peyton's form came into view.

"Hi guys!" Peyton greeted too cheery for it being 4 in the morning.

"What are you doing here at 4 in the morning?!" Nathan yelled not bothering to get up from the floor. Peyton laughed and went over toward him blowing the air horn above his head again enjoying every second of him being in pain from the air horn. "If you don't stop blowing that stupid horn I'm going to throw both you and the horn out the door." Nathan warned finally getting up from the floor rubbing the back of his head.

"Well now that you're up we should go have breakfast." Peyton exclaimed looking at her boyfriend who only nodded.

"Alright let's go to breakfast." Nathan groaned still rubbing his head as he walked over towards Luke slightly glaring at him.

"You just wait I'm gonna get you back for this." Luke only laughed and gently pushed Nathan into the bathroom telling them that they were leaving in a half hour. Brooke sat on the bed and looked down at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Luke asked sitting on the bed next to her.

"Nothing, it's nothing really." She whispered not trusting her voice at the moment, today was bittersweet, she was graduating high school a huge mile stone in her life but the countdown of her time with Nathan was also beginning. He was due at Duke at the end of July and they wouldn't be able to see each other until Brooke launched her line in New York during fashion week. She had decided to take online classes so that she could do it either at home in Boston or in North Carolina because she was determined to be there for Nathan cheering him on at all his games.

"You're sad that Nathan's leaving aren't you?"

"It's gonna be weird, I mean in 2 months he's going to be going back to North Carolina and with his classes and basketball I'll probably only see him during his games."

"Brooke, you and Nathan are going to make it because you love each other and you're both willing to make it work."

"But Nathan and Haley couldn't do the long distance thing." She weakly argued.

"Nathan and Haley weren't meant to be together like the two of you are, you guys really truly are meant for each other. You're both confident in who you are and know that everything can't be perfect all the time and at the end of the day you're always going to have each other to fall back on plus you have Peyton and I to call whenever things are crazy and you just need someone to talk to. You're going to be fine the time will fly and you'll be together again." Brooke smiled and wiped the tears that were falling as she stood up and walked over to the bathroom.

Nathan stood on the other side of the door smiling at what Luke had said to Brooke. Luke was right they were meant to be together because they started out as friends before they became a couple and Nathan was confident in the fact that Brooke was his best friend and that she was his best friend first and foremost then his girlfriend. He smiled at Brooke as she opened the door and walked into the bathroom wrapping his arms around him. "I love you." She nodded against his chest and wrapped her arms tightly around him. They stayed like that for a few moments before Nathan pulled away brushing a stray piece of hair out of her eyes gently cupping her cheek. "I'm also very proud of you." She smiled and gently kissed him before turning the shower back on and stripping down before stepping in while Nathan brushed his teeth and finished getting ready.

After their nice and relaxing breakfast with Peyton and Luke Brooke and Nathan were sitting around their apartment as they waited for graduation to arrive. Today was the day that they had been waiting for since they started high school 4 years ago and even though they weren't graduating from Tree Hill High, they were graduating. Nathan wrapped his arms tightly around Brooke's stomach as a movie played on the TV neither of them really paying attention to what the movie was about, his mind drifted back to the night that Brooke showed up at his door telling him that she was leaving Tree Hill and when she asked him if he wanted to join her he didn't even think twice about it. It wasn't as hard to leave as he thought it would be because the thought of being able to leave all the drama of Tree Hill behind him made his adrenaline rush. Yes they had had their fair share of drama but at the end of the day they had worked it out through the Haley drama and the Luke and Peyton drama they were still together again at the end of the day.

Sighing Nathan lazily kissed the top of Brooke's head as he shifted down as he was lying underneath her. Brooke smiled and shifted so that she was facing Nathan and kissed him square on the mouth releasing pent up passion that had been building for some time. Nathan's hands gripped her hips pulling her as close to his body as he could, they hadn't had time for this in the longest time. Brooke slipped her hand under his t-shirt and ran her hands up his abs smirking when she felt his muscles contract as her hands explored his skin. As Nathan's hand went under Brooke's shirt and towards her bra a rapid knocking broke the passionate moment between the two. Groaning Brooke kissed Nathan one more time before getting up and going to the door fixing her shirt as she walked. Brooke wasn't surprised to see Cooper, Deb, Karen, Luke, and Peyton standing on the other side of the door. Smiling sweetly she moved so they could enter the apartment and sighed to herself, just when she and Nathan were going to get a moment alone together they were interrupted. Nathan looked at Brooke and felt her tension but he knew that there would be time for them to be together later.

Brooke sat next to Nathan a smile plastered on her face, but on the inside she wanted to cry. All Deb and Karen could talk about was how great it was that Nathan was going to be at Duke and how great it was going to be for Nathan to be back in North Carolina where he was closer to his family and how awesome it was going to be when Nathan spends the holidays in Tree Hill. Brooke excused herself and walked out of the apartment hoping that the fresh air would help her feel better, sitting down on the steps leading up to their apartment she wrapped her arms around her knees hugging them tightly to her body.

"Hey is this seat taken?" Brooke looked up at Cooper shaking her head no. He sat down next to her and sighed. "Got too heavy in there didn't it?"

"Huh?"

"With all the talk about how great Nathan going to Duke is." Brooke sighed and wrapped her arms around her knees again. "You're happy that he's going to Duke right?"

"Of course it's his dream."

"But?"

"But why is Deb making a big deal about it? Why does she have to rub in my face that I'm losing him? Why can't she just shut up about it for 5 damn seconds?"

"I will admit that she took the happy proud parent thing to an extreme. But you're not losing him he's just going to school he's not breaking up with you and if he does I'll kick his ass."

"It still scares me though. I mean he's going back to North Carolina where Haley can find him and seduce him."

"You trust Nathan don't you?"

"With all my heart but its Haley that concerns me. It's all the other girls that will want to sleep with the super star that scare me." Cooper nodded and wrapped his arm around her shoulders pulling her to him letting her use his shoulder to cry on.

"Well I think I have a way to help alleviate that fear."

"How?"

"Well I besides me investing in your clothing line, which by the way excites my girlfriend to no end she can't wait for your line to come out, I also am going to let give you an open invitation to my house in North Carolina with a key to the guest house for you to use at any time. I don't want to hear the excuse we have no time to see each other because you both can have a plane at your disposal whenever you want."

"Why are you doing all of this?"

"You are the only one that truly makes Nathan happy and accepts him for who he is. You are also the best thing to happen to him and I'm willing to help make sure that you two stay together and happy."

"Thank you Cooper." Brooke leaned up and kissed his cheek giving him a hug as they sat there. "Oh and after graduation I need to speak to you and Nathan." Brooke nodded and stood up along with Cooper both heading back into the Nathan love fest that was bound to still be going on.

Nathan looked up and smiled when he saw Brooke walk back into the apartment but his smile dropped when he saw the fake smile plastered across her face. He excused himself from his mom and pulled Brooke into their bedroom. "What's wrong?" He asked the moment the door was shut behind him.

"It's nothing Nathan." Nathan looked at her silently telling her that he knew that she was lying and. Sighing Brooke looked down at the ground. "Why can't your mom shut up about you going to Duke? Why does she have to be all like 'o it's so great my baby's gonna be back close to home'? Does she hate you being here that much?"

"Brooke, who cares what my mom has to say, all that matters is that you're okay with me going to Duke."

"I'm more than okay about you going to Duke, I'm so proud of you; I'm just scared that some girl is going to seduce you like Haley." She muttered Haley's name hoping that Nathan didn't hear her. Nathan sighed and sat down on the bed pulling Brooke down into his lap.

"No girl will be able to seduce me; I'll be too busy thinking about you the whole time." Brooke blushed and laid her head on Nathan's shoulder wrapping her arms around his neck as they sat there. "We can do this baby I promise we can do this." He gently kissed her cheek tightening his grip around her waist. "I'll be damned if we screw this up, I love you too much to lose you." Brooke looked into Nathan's blue eyes the breath literally sucked out of her as she saw the passion swirling in his eyes.

"I love you too Nathan." She kissed him putting everything she had in her into the kiss to hopefully show Nathan a smidge of how much he meant to her. She pulled away and rested her forehead against his. "Oh Coop wants to talk to us after graduation." Nathan nodded and pulled her even tighter against his body. "We have to get ready for graduation." Nathan nodded again and stood up setting Brooke lightly on the ground.

Brooke sat in the 4th row in a sea of blue, yellow, and black with kids that she had never even spoken two words to in the time that she was at Franklin High. She looked up and spotted Luke and Peyton beaming at her along with Cooper, who Brooke had realized had become like her big brother of sorts in the short time that she had spent time with him while he was in Boston. Smiling at him and giving a small wave Brooke anxiously waited for her turn. Nathan sat in the 10th row anxiously bouncing his leg up and down waiting for his turn, they had just started handing out diplomas and they weren't even the middle of the C's yet. Sighing Nathan turned his mind to what Cooper might have to talk to both him and Brooke about and he wondered what they talked about while they were sitting outside.

Nathan looked up as Brooke walked across the stage to get her diploma, he winked causing her to blush a little as she walked back to her seat a huge grin spread across her face. He then decided that he was going to make sure that they were alone that night at their apartment because they had a lot of celebrating to do. With that thought in his head his leg stopped bouncing and a smirk spread across his slightly tanned face as he watched more students walk across the stage. Finally it was Nathan's turn and as he walked across the stage his eyes locked with Brooke's both talking to each other without words as he walked past her row and back to his seat, they seemed to be saying the same thing 'Congratulations baby we did it!' Nathan sat down and leaned back in his chair now anxiously waiting for the ceremony to be over.

The moment they were announced as the class of 2008 I can't remember for the life of me what year they graduated in and were out of the auditorium Nathan was off in search of Brooke and the second he laid his eyes on her he rushed over to her and picked her up twirling them around. Brooke squealed as Nathan picked her up and wrapped her arms around his neck as they twirled around gently kissing his temple. He pulled back slightly from her and smiled passionately kissing her before everyone found them and made them take a million pictures.

"Congratulations babe, I'm so proud of you." She whispered her arms still tightly wrapped around his neck. Nathan smiled and kissed her again. Cooper walked up with Deb and Karen clearing his throat making the two jump apart and blush at being caught.

"I think we should head back to the apartment and take pictures there." Nathan and Brooke nodded walking behind the group Nathan pulling Brooke close to him as they walked smiling at each other and planning a way to get everybody to leave early so they could have some much needed alone time together.

Brooke fell back on the couch next to Nathan after the last picture had been taken, graduation had ended almost an hour ago and they had taken close to a million pictures. Luke and Peyton had left already along with Jake and Jenny leaving Brooke and Nathan alone with Deb, Karen, and Cooper. Cooper looked at the two teens and leaned over towards Deb and Karen. "Hey why don't you guys head back to the hotel?" Deb yawned and nodded standing up and kissing Nathan's cheek making promises of stopping by before they headed off the to the airport the next morning.

"So what do you need to talk to us about Coop?" Nathan asked as he unzipped his gown and let it fall from his shoulders and throwing his cap onto the chair that Deb had been sitting in.

"Well I like I told Brooke earlier you guys will each have a key to my guest house so that you can spend time together while Brooke's in North Carolina and in my ever growing generosity I'm giving you each a credit card for plane trips and such so that you can't use not having money to see each as an excuse. The only excuse I want to hear come out of either of your mouths about not seeing each other is having school work and work to do, got it?" Both nodded taking the credit cards out of Cooper's hand and taking turns hugging him.

"Thank you Coop, this means a lot." Nathan replied completely in awe of how much Cooper was doing for them.

"Like I said anything for my favorite couple, now I'm going to head back to the hotel and you two enjoy your night." Cooper hugged them again and left each sitting on the couch looking at the gold cards in their hands.

"Wow, I can't believe he did this." Brooke whispered finally looking up at Nathan for the first time since Coop had left almost 5 minutes ago.

"I can, he knows how much I love you and how much going to Duke is my dream yet it's hard for me to leave you here but who cares about that right now, we finally have some time alone." Nathan replied lightly kissing the corner of Brooke's mouth setting the gold cards on the coffee table.

"I'll get the door; you turn off the cell phones." Nathan nodded and each rushed to do their respective job before meeting in front of their bedroom door Nathan hoisting Brooke up so she was resting between Nathan and the door kissing a trail up her neck and towards her mouth. "Nathan…….please." Nathan nodded and grabbed Brooke's hips wrapping her legs tightly around his waist as she reached behind her and opened the door. Nathan walked into the bedroom and slammed the door shut with his foot his mouth never leaving Brooke's, boy he was glad that he finally got to spend some time with Brooke to celebrate.

A/N: I updated! I hope you guys liked the chapter and I'm going to try and update sooner.


	19. Dealing With the Demons

**_WARNING: I feel like I need to have a warning for this chapter, it contains stuff about depression and self mutation so I believe a warning is in order. If you are having feelings like the ones mentioned in this chapter please, talk to someone._**

**Disclaimer:** I also do not own the characters only the story idea and plot line.

"Hey Brooke do you love me?" Nathan asked one morning after they had gone for a run. Brooke closed the fridge door handing him a water bottle looking at him strangely.

"What?"

"Do you love me?" He repeated chugging down half of his water.

"Of course I do, why are you asking?"

"Would you anything for me?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"What you want me to do." She answered sipping down some more of her water and sitting across from him at the kitchen table.

"Would you go on a trip with me?"

"Where would said trip take us?" She asked watching him sit on the counter playing with his water bottle.

"Tree Hill." Brooke luckily had not put the water bottle to her lips when he muttered the words 'Tree Hill' otherwise the water would've ended up across the table.

"Why?"

"Well I wanted to take a look around Duke before I got down there and I have to go for Orientation anyway and I was wondering if we could maybe stop in Tree Hill, ya know visit Peyton, Luke, and stuff." He muttered again kicking his feet out in front of him.

"Alright." Nathan looked at Brooke with eyes wide as saucers.

"Really?" Nathan asked making sure that he wasn't making things up and that she had really just agreed to go with him.

"Yeah, I mean it makes sense if you have to go for Orientation then we might as well stop in for a visit, Peyton's been wondering when we could hang out."

"You sure you wanna do this? I know how bad the last trip to Tree Hill was, so I'm not going to make you do this if you don't want to."

"I want to do it. I may have left Tree Hill but that doesn't mean that I can't go back for a little bit right?" She asked now up and standing in front of Nathan resting her hands on his thighs.

"True but I don't want you to feel like you have to do it. I can just go to Duke by myself and come back."

"No I want to do this, with you." She whispered shyly brushing a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"Thank you." Nathan whispered lightly kissing her forehead sliding off the counter and wrapping his arms around her. Brooke sighed and wrapped her arms around Nathan relishing the security and love she felt in Nathan's arms.

And that is how Brooke Davis found herself in a car next to Nathan with Jake and Jenny in the back seat on their way to Tree Hill. Brooke was thankful that Jake and Jenny offered to accompany Brooke and Nathan on the trip so now with a little more than an hour before they reached Tree Hill Brooke was beginning to feel a little nervous. The memories of why Brooke left came flooding back hitting Brooke like a ton of bricks. She wondered why these memories hadn't hit her the last time she was in Tree Hill.

_Flashback_

_Brooke looked at the picture in her hand, tears slightly blurring the figures in the picture, it was the last shot she had of the whole group happy and the only couple remaining was Bevin and Skills. Haley had left Nathan for her music and Luke had chosen Peyton, Brooke's best friend her sister her family, over her; It wasn't like she had completely torn down the walls she had built up over the years letting him into every fiber of being. Looking at the picture Brooke should've known that he was going to go running to Peyton, they had more in common. Both of them were just too broody for Brooke's taste, every once in a while is fine but there are times when you need to find the silver lining._

_That was the last moment that Brooke had actually smiled and been genuinely happy. Every morning she woke up and put on the mask, slipping her flawless smile into place before going out and facing the world._

_She had no idea just when it got this bad. When she began drinking to the point of blacking out and even playing with knives toying with the idea of running the blades across her skin to see if what they say is really true, if cutting really does release pain._

_But every time she brought the knife close to her skin she freaked out picturing the blood oozing from her leg and she would become lightheaded. She was also smart enough to lock up the sharp objects before she drank. So at least she was being smart in her state of depression. _

_She had been under this black cloud for almost a month now and it was beginning to take over her life. She was skipping school to avoid people more so Luke and Peyton, she had given up caring about cheerleading it held no meaning for her now, and she found herself not eating some days hoping that if she were thinner maybe just maybe Luke would want her back._

_She, of course, would never tell anyone that she was depressed or that what had happened had affected her this much. No, when she went to school she turned on her smile and made it seem like everything was just fine and dandy and that nothing could hurt her._

_So that night, Brooke Davis decided that she was going to leave Tree Hill behind._

_End of flashback_

That was the night before Brooke left Tree Hill and looking over at Nathan she couldn't help but wonder what would be like had she not gone to Nathan's apartment that night, her life could be different.

Nathan looked over at Brooke as they passed the welcome to Tree Hill sign and wondered why she had a pained expression on her face. Reaching over Nathan grabbed her hand making her eyes snap open and looked down at his hand that was resting on top of hers gently squeezing. "You okay?" He asked lacing his fingers with hers. She shook her head slipping a smile into place hoping that Nathan didn't press the issue. Nathan saw through the smile but smiled anyway inwardly sighing deciding to just press the issue later.

Nathan felt weird being back in Tree Hill. When he left with Brooke he had told himself that he wasn't going to come back, that Tree Hill would just be a part of his past that he didn't want to relive. So much had happened here that still haunted Nathan.

_Flashback_

_Nathan looked around the walls of his apartment and then at the ring that lay on the coffee table in front of him. So much had happened to him in the past year that just thinking about it made Nathan's head spin. He was tired of dealing with everything, with all the reminders of all the failures he's had. He had failed at his marriage with Haley, a marriage he was sure was going to work since they loved and cared so much about each other. He was failing yet again in school, which might have something to do with the fact that Nathan just stopped going to school. Sitting there in his apartment Nathan Scott felt like the biggest failure of the year. He needed to get out of Tree Hill; he couldn't stay here and be haunted by all the things that had gone wrong. Desperately he needed to get out of Tree Hill to save at least some of the sanity he had left and maybe save him from becoming an alcoholic at the age of 18. _

_Getting fed up Nathan picked up his wedding ring and threw it against the wall watching it bounce off the wall and land on the floor inches in front of him. Suddenly the idea occurred him, picking up the wedding ring from the floor Nathan walked out of his apartment and down to his car._

_He pulled up in front of Dan's beach house and got out shoving his hands into his sweatshirt pocket_ _as he walked around the house and down towards the beach. Standing just a few feet in front of the rolling tide Nathan pulled the ring out of his jean's pocket twirling it a few times about his fingers. For a moment he lets his mind wander to the happier times before the reality crashes down on him. She left him so he shouldn't feel bad about moving on and getting on with his life. Reeling his arm back he hurls the ring into the water finally feeling like the weight he's been carrying around since Haley left being lifted from his shoulders. That night as Nathan fell asleep on his couch the vodka bottle sat untouched on his coffee table._

_Hours later after Nathan had fallen asleep a rushed knocking awoke him from his sober slumber. It took him a few moments before he realized that he wasn't exactly dreaming there really was something knocking on his door. In the back of his mind he thought that maybe just maybe Haley had come to her senses and decided to come back. When he opened the door he wasn't expecting to see Brooke Davis standing on the other side._

_"Davis what are you doing here at 3 in the morning?"_

_"I'm here to tell you that I'm leaving Tree Hill."_

_"What?" He asked fully awake now._

_"I'm leaving Tree Hill and I just wanted to tell you 'cause you won't tell them."_

_"Just tell me where you're going?"_

_"I don't know yet." He stepped out into the chilly early morning air leaving the door slightly ajar._

_"Why are you leaving?"_

_"No one wants me here anymore so I'm just gonna leave so I'm not a burden anymore. I know people will cheer when I'm gone." She struggled not to cry, she hadn't expected Nathan to be so caring. She expected him not to care to just say whatever and turn away._

_"Maybe a fresh start won't hurt, when you finally decide where you're going let me know so I know you're safe." Brooke nodded and gave into temptation kissing Nathan. She turned and scurried down the stairs leaving Nathan confused trying to figure what happened. _

_Nathan watched her run down the stairs wondering what had just happened. Pinching himself he shook his head knowing that he didn't just dream that she had kissed him. So why on earth did Brooke Davis just kiss him? They haven't shared a kiss since the night they made the sex tape._ _Feeling the cool breeze Nathan briskly walked back into the apartment going back on the couch instantly falling asleep._

_End of flashback._

Nathan looked over at Brooke again this time grabbing her hand and holding onto it as they pulled into the driveway of Brooke's house. "You sure you want to stay here?" Nathan asked the car still running in case she changed her mind.

"Yep, it's free of charge and a neutral zone, so yes I still want to stay here." Brooke replied squeezing Nathan's hand before getting out of the car. Nathan took a deep breath and shut the car off; did they really need a neutral zone?

Nathan walked into Brooke's house later that night after having dinner with his mom and felt that something was off, the house was too quiet. Nathan slowly made his way to Brooke's bedroom a tad bit relieved to hear the soft John Mayer music coming from behind her closed doors. Pushing the door open Nathan's eyes scanned the dimly lit room to find Brooke sprawled on out her bed starring at the ceiling.

"Brooke?" Brooke lifted her head to acknowledge him before going back to studying her ceiling. "Brooke, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She softly replied turning on her side as Nathan walked towards her bed slipping off his shoes before lying down next to her.

"Something's wrong." He stated pushing a piece of hair out of her eyes, his fingers lingering on her cheek for a moment.

"It's nothing important." She replied glancing into his eyes for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Nathan asks again moving closer to her, placing his left hand on the small of her back.

"It's just being back in Tree Hill. I thought that I could handle it but when we passed the welcome to Tree Hill sign the night I left came flooding back."

"What happened that night?" Nathan asked wanting to know what finally pushed her over the edge and made her leave.

"I was looking at a picture of the whole group of us, Haley, you, Luke, Peyton, Bevin, Skills, Mouth, and me. The last picture we had all taken before Luke and I broke up when he chose Peyton over me. That then spiraled me into thinking about how I had ended up how I was back then."

"What do you mean how you were back then?"

"I was drinking almost every day to the point of blacking out and I was toying with the idea of cutting myself to try and ease the pain I was feeling. It was really bad."

"Brooke, why didn't you talk to anybody?" Nathan asked concern and horror at the thought of Brooke cutting up her perfect skin flooding his voice.

"Who was I going to talk to? I mean I stopped talking to Peyton and Luke."

"You could've come to me."

"Nathan you had your own issues to deal with that you didn't need my on top of yours."

"I would've given you someone to vent to. You shouldn't have had to go through that by yourself."

"That's why I showed up at your door that night. I know that I told you it was because I knew you wouldn't tell them but that was lie."

"Why did you tell me then?" Nathan asked hoping he got the answer he wanted to hear.

"I told you because of how close we were before high school happened. It was my way of telling you that I would always think of you as my best friend." Nathan nodded now completely understanding now why she had showed up at his door and glad that he had gotten the answer he wanted.

"I was worried about you that night." He admitted toying with a piece of her hair that had fallen back in front of her eyes.

"Really?" She asked inching just a little bit closer to him.

"Yeah, the next morning I checked my phone to see if you had called or sent a text. I will also admit that I checked my phone almost every 30 minutes. Felt like the biggest girl."

"Nathan." Brooke softly chuckled picturing Nathan checking his phone every minute like she has done on numerous occasions waiting for Nathan to call her.

"Hey I can't help it that even after years of not talking to me I still cared for you and thought of you as my best friend." Nathan admitted a small blush creeping up his neck. "And I never really thanked you for extending the invitation to me. I don't know what I would've done had I been stuck here without even you to lean on." Brooke gently cupped his cheek with her hand.

"I should also thank you for coming. I don't think I would have survived in Boston without you. Whenever I'm with you I always feel safe and I know that nothing can happen to me since you're there. I love you Nathan and I'm so glad that you moved in with me even after years of not talking to each other and being complete jerks to each other."

"I love you too." Nathan replied lightly kissing her forehead pulling her flush against him. "Are you okay now?"

"Yes." She replied resting her head against his chest drifting off to asleep to the rhythm of Nathan's heart beat.

Leaving Tree Hill was the best thing to happen to both Brooke and Nathan but also coming back and facing the demons that drove both of them away had also been one of the best things to happen to them.

A/N: I know it's been so long since I've updated and I'm hoping that you guys enjoyed this chapter.


	20. The First Night

_**Author's note: So here's the next chapter and now that I have some time off of school I'm going to update more frequently. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**_

Nathan sighed plastering on a fake smile as he sat in the midst of a couple hundred overzealous Duke Students, he was supposed to be happy that he was finally in college and attending his dream school yet the thought was bittersweet. Here he was living out his dream of playing for Duke but he was here without Brooke, the one person that, in the short time they have been together, had become the most important person in his life.

"Dude seriously I know you miss Brooke but we're at Duke and you really need to be happy. Do not make me call Brooke and tell her that you're being broody." Luke jokes lightly shaking Nathan to get him to actually smile.

"I'm not being broody, that's your job bro." Nathan joked finally cracking an actual smile. As he finally gave into the overzealous crowd he still couldn't help but think about how he was going to do this by himself without his support system there to cheer him on like he had while living in Boston.

Brooke looked up at the clock and wanted to scream, she had been trying for hours to work on some new designs but now looking down at the blank pages she pushed them away feeling like they were silently taunting her about how much she relied on Nathan. Nathan over the short time they had been together had become her driving force; she loved making Nathan proud of her. Now that Nathan was at Duke she didn't know how she was going to fair by herself, sure back in Tree Hill she had lived by herself but this is different; she had gone from living with someone that loved her to know living by herself. She, of course, was proud of Nathan about getting into Duke and living out his dream but it was bittersweet. "Brooke Davis, you have to shake this feeling, he's not going to dump you and you have a huge meeting tomorrow so get your butt in gear and start sketching." She told herself pulling the blank pages back towards her determined to at least do one good sketch. "Why did the first night always have to be the hardest?" She asked the quiet apartment subconsciously expecting it to answer. Sighing when the room falls silent again she turns the stereo up and puts her head down working determinedly.

Nathan walked into the dorm room he luckily shared with Luke after the long day of activities that he was forced to take part in and fell back on his bed. He looked over and left a wave of jealously wash over him as he heard Luke and Peyton making plans to hang out during the up-coming weekend, he would love to see Brooke on the weekend but they were a little bit farther apart then Luke and Peyton. Finally giving in Nathan picks up his phone and sits up in his bed leaning his back against the wall. He waits a whole 2 seconds after pressing her speed dial number to hear her voice and it instantly brings a smile to his face.

"Hey hot shot." She joked smiling as she heard him chuckle on the other end of the phone. "So to what due I owe the pleasure of you taking time out of your busy college life to call little ole me?" She asked looking down at her sketches and shading another line. She suddenly felt inspired to keep working, so slipping her headset on her ear she set her phone done and continued sketching as she waited for Nathan to answer.

"Can't a guy call his girlfriend just to talk?" Nathan replied smiling as he pictured what Brooke was doing as they were on the phone.

"Yes he can but there has to be a reason since I thought Luke would keep you so busy that you wouldn't have time to call me." She replied looking up from her sketch and looking for her pink colored pencil.

"I would find time to call you." He replied starring up at the ceiling. "I miss you." He whispered after a few moments of silence passed between the two.

"I miss you too but everything's going to be fine."

"How can you be so sure?" Nathan asked mentally telling himself that he sounded like a girl.

"I just think that we're going to be fine and even stronger after all of this is said and done. Now tell me all about your first day at Duke." Brooke lightly demanded as she went back to work on her sketches. Nathan just chuckled and began telling her all about his first day at Duke. Brooke intently multi-tasked listening to Nathan and working on the sketches for her meeting in the morning with some of her investors and as she glanced at the clock Brooke suddenly didn't care what time she went to bed laughing at something Nathan said.

"So what are you doing?" Nathan asked finally finished telling Brooke all about his day and finally glancing at the clock shocked that it was already 2:30 in the morning.

"I'm working on my sketches for my meeting tomorrow morning."

"Brooke! Why didn't you tell me you had a meeting in the morning? You should go to bed its like 2:30." Nathan ranted sitting up in a panic.

"I don't care what time it is, I've gotten more done while being on the phone with you then I have all day, I'll just drink a ton of coffee and come home and sleep right after the meeting, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Nathan, don't make me sit here by myself I'll go out of my mind." Nathan sighed running a hand over his face; he thankfully didn't have any classes the next day so turning onto his side he decided to just stay on the phone with her.

"Alright so what's the idea for the line?" He asked bringing a smile to her face at how much about fashion Nathan had soaked up over the summer.

"I'm not sure yet I don't know if it should be geared towards high school students, college students, or to the working girl."

"Brooke, you should do what you know. This line is supposed to represent you, so don't worry about who it's geared towards and focus on designing it and wowing them in your meeting. Everything will work itself out."

"See this is why I need you."

"Well I hope that there are other reasons why you need me." Nathan replied laughing softly at the double meaning of his statement.

"Wow Nathan that was overly sexual, what are you really thinking about?" Brooke asked smiling down at her sketches; she was beginning to feel confident in her designs.

"Oh you know this girl I met today." He replied laughing at what her face must look like.

"That's cool you can have that girl; I'm already planning on seducing Mike." She replied smiling in victory at the silence coming from Nathan's end.

"Mike? You seriously have lost your mind; that guy has nothing on me."

"I wouldn't say that. He is tall and has fantastic hands." Brooke laughed laughing the game they were playing.

"Fantastic hands? I think I should fly out there to make sure you're alright, I mean Mike and fantastic hands do not belong in the same sentence together."

"Well what am I supposed to do when my hot boyfriend is in another state surrounded by hot girls?"

"Your hot boyfriend would be stupid to think that there was a girl half as beautiful as you." Brooke was glad that Nathan couldn't see the blush that was spreading over her face. "Now I'm going to let you go so you can hopefully catch some sleep before your meeting."

"Thank you."

"It's no problem Brooke that's what I'm here for, now off to bed; I love you and I'll talk to you later."

"Love you too Nathan, good night." Brooke replied switching her headset off and plugging her phone in before going to bed and glancing at the clock she was content with getting just 3 hours of sleep.

The next morning Brooke woke up an hour before her alarm and although she was still tired she got up and showered before heading into the kitchen to make some coffee and check her phone. She smiled at her phone seeing a text message from Nathan sent moments before and rereading the message again Brooke felt a new sense of confidence wash over, if Nathan thought she could do it then surely she could do it.

Nathan sat in the café with Luke anxiously waiting on pins and needles to hear from Brooke. Luke along with some of the guys from the team that Nathan had met the day before laughed at him enjoying the opportunity to make fun of Nathan and Nathan actually let them mock him.

"Geez Nate you're so whipped man." Jon Scheyer, one of the guards joked dodging Nathan's hand.

"You're just jealous that you don't have a hot girlfriend like I do." Nathan shot back smiling triumphantly feeling like he won the battle.

"How do I know that you have a hot girlfriend?" Jon asked completely serious yet his question held a joking tone. Nathan smirked and reached into his wallet and pulled out the picture that if Brooke knew he had she would for sure kill him and scatter his body part throughout the country but he pulled it out and held it in front of Jon's face. "Dang Nate, you weren't lying. She is gorgeous!" Jon exclaimed pulling the picture out of Nathan's hand to closely examine it

Brooke walked out of her meeting a huge smile on her face and almost wanted to jump up and down she was so excited and the 3 red bulls she had drank before the meeting might have something to do with her high energy level and as she walked to her car she remembered that she had promised to call Nathan and pulled her phone out leaning against her car.

Nathan pulled the picture out of Jon's hands when his phone began to ring. Jumping at the sudden sound Nathan jumped up and walked away from the group. "Hello?"

"Nathan! They loved my designs! They want to back me and can't wait for the samples to be done! They even want to open a store in Boston!"

"Wow Brooke that's great."

"Oh Nathan it's so awesome! I can't believe that it's actually happening; I mean I've been dreaming about this for so long and now it's finally happening. It's surreal."

"I'm so proud of you Brooke." Nathan replied beaming as he watched Luke joke around with Jon and some other guys from the team. "You should go home and get some sleep and I'll talk to you later, alright?"

"I'll talk to you later Nathan."

"Brooke?" Nathan asked before she hung up on him.

"Yeah?"

"We're gonna get through this." Brooke smiled and felt a slight weight being lifted from her shoulders when he said the simple statement.

"Yeah we are. I love you and I'll talk to you later." Both hung up the phone and felt that everything was going to be okay.

_**A/N: So there's the next chapter and I wanted to make it a little happy since the next chapter will be a little bit sad so stay tuned the next chapter should be up by the middle of the next week!**_

_**THANKS FOR READING!**_

_**~fightingillini**_


	21. First Game Surprise

A/N: I'M BACK!!!!!!! I know that this update should have come a lot sooner but I am very sorry. Thank you to all of you that are sticking with me, I promise to update sooner.

Nathan sat on his bed, flipping his cell phone over and over in his hand waiting for his daily phone call from his girlfriend, a routine that he had become dependent on within his first week at Duke.

"You know you could always call her." Luke stated from his desk working on homework and talking to Peyton. Nathan ignored him, knowing that he could very well call her, but Brooke had told him that she would call him since she had a meeting. Finally Nathan grew restless and got up from his bed and grabbed his sweatshirt before heading outside to get some air.

Nathan had been walking around campus for about 10 minutes before his cell phone began to ring in his pocket. Grabbing it immediately he flipped it open not bothering to look at the caller I.D. "Hello?" He asked sitting down on one of the benches closest to him.

"Hey Nathan, sorry I'm late in calling but my meeting ran longer." Brooke apologized falling tiredly back onto her bed.

"It's fine; how was your meeting?" He asked making small talk, watching kids walk past him.

"I think it went well, they like the samples so far, and we've picked a logo design." Nathan smiled happy that everything was going okay.

"That's great Brooke." Nathan replied leaning back against the back of the bench.

"What's wrong Nathan?" Brooke asked sitting up taking in the tone of Nathan's voice.

"My first game is next week and I didn't know if you were coming or not." He replied sighing, hoping that she would have remembered and had already made plans to come down and see him. It had been a very long time since he had seen her; it had been 78 days since Nathan had last seen Brooke.

"I have a meeting that morning and I'm going to try and get a flight later on in the afternoon, I don't know if I'm going to make it but I'm trying. I'm so sorry Nathan." She replied knowing that he was not going to take the news well. She hadn't taken the news well that she had a meeting that morning.

"It's okay, I mean you just can't stop with everything you have going on and I'll have more games." He replied his shoulder slumping and a frown etched on his face. Getting up from the bench he slowly began making his way back to his room.

"No it's not okay Nathan. It's your first game and I should be there and I'm going to try everything I can to get there okay?" She asked sitting up in bed anxiously playing with a piece of her hair. In all honesty, she had almost forgotten about Nathan's game on Monday what with everything going on and all the things that she was currently trying to get done. Exhaling slowly she rubbed her temples feeling a headache coming on, she was a horrible girlfriend.

"If you really can't make it then I'm not going to be upset Brooke, I know how busy you are and how hard it is to drop everything you have to come to my game." He replied stopping in front of his door part of him not really wanting to go back into his room and possibly be met with Luke gushing on the phone with Peyton about how awesome it would be to see after the game on Monday, hell Peyton was probably flying in the next day to spend the weekend with Luke. Sometimes he wished that he and Brooke could have the relationship that Peyton and Luke had. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and was surprised to see Luke almost sulking on his bed his phone in his hand. "Hey Brooke I'm going to call you back, okay?"

"Okay, love you." She replied looking at her phone slightly confused after Nathan had replied and hung up.

Walking into the room he pulled the chair from Luke's desk over towards Luke's bed and sat on it waiting for Luke to tell him what was wrong. "She's not coming." He muttered moments later, still looking at his phone in shock. "She has too much to do and can't make it. I told her about this when we got the schedule and she promised that she would be here; I mean it's our first game and she can't make the time to at least come watch part of it. I wouldn't care if she showed up and left at halftime at least she would be here supporting me!" He vented slamming his phone down on the soft bed, Nathan watched it bounce back up and land a few inches in front of Luke.

"I know, Brooke's probably not coming either she's so busy with work." Nathan replied disappointment filling his voice. Luke shook his head feeling angry at Peyton.

"I love Peyton, I really do, but this is bullshit. I'm her boyfriend damn it! She should be supporting me as best she can and with her in New York going to art school it's hard to support each other. I don't know how you and Brooke do it so well." Luke replied finally looking up at Nathan, who was shaking his head.

"It's not as easy as we make it look. I mean you've seen Peyton at least twice since school started and I haven't seen Brooke since July. Plus I have to support her because she's doing what she wants to do and she's trying to support me while trying to get her line off the ground. I love Brooke and already know that I want to spend the rest of my life with her and right now we're just laying the foundation for the rest of our lives." Luke looked at Nathan with his mouth wide open in shock. "What?" Nathan asked looking at his brother confused.

"Who are you? The Nathan I know would never say anything that remotely deep about a relationship. Where did Nathan go?" Luke asked shaking his head, thinking that he was imagining the whole conversation he and Nathan were having.

"Actually Cooper said that to me when I talked to him the other day so be shocked that Cooper said that not me." Luke laughed picturing Nathan's shocked face when Cooper told him the words of wisdom. "Dude, let's get out of this depressing room and go to John's or something." Luke nodded and got up grabbing his phone and following Nathan out of their room.

Brooke sat on her bed toying with her new shiny blue cell phone furiously thinking about how to get out of the business things she had to do on Monday, it was Nathan's first game and she really wanted to be there to see him. Sighing she dialed Peyton's number hoping that she would come up with a plan for Brooke.

"Hey B. Davis." Peyton greeted after only two rings.

"Hey Sawyer." Brooke replied leaning back in her bed starring at her ceiling thinking that maybe the answer to her dilemma would be written in the white paint.

"What's wrong?" Peyton asked dropping her pencil and paying full attention to the conversation.

"So it's Nathan's first game on Monday right? Well I have a ton of meetings that day and on Tuesday so I can't go, but I really want to be there in support of him and it's been so long since I've seen him that I really want to be there."

"So why don't you just call everybody and explain the situation to them. I mean they should understand, right?"

"I don't want them to think that I'm not serious and ditching important meetings to go my boyfriend's basketball game, it seems a little bit irresponsible to me." Brooke replied feeling tears welling up in her eyes. Peyton sighed rubbing her temples lightly trying to make the answer magically appear in front of her.

"Look don't stress about it right now and I'll fly down after my last class Thursday and we'll come up with something, but for right now don't let Nathan or Luke know that we're trying to get to their game okay?"

"I won't say a word."

"Alright now get some sleep and I'll call you later."

"Thanks Peyton." Brooke replied feeling a little bit better that Peyton was going to try and help her.

"No problem Brooke." Brooke hung up her phone and quickly sent off a text message to Nathan before turning over and falling into a fitful sleep.

Nathan sat in John's dorm room watching John and Luke go at it in Guitar Hero when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Pulling it out he smiled when he saw a text message from Brooke, no matter how hurt he was that she couldn't come to his game he still loved her and still loved getting text messages from her. _I love you Nathan and don't let my insensitivity of planning ruin your first game. I'll talk to you tomorrow._ Nathan sighed part of him still holding out that Brooke would somehow be able to make it his game. Quickly replying with an I love you Nathan slipped his phone back into his pocket and stood up taking the guitar from Luke stepping up and ready to completely demolish John.

The next morning Brooke woke up and slowly got out of bed. Her fitful sleep had done nothing but give her a horrible pounding headache and feeling as she had been run over by a Mac truck a million and one times. After successfully starting her beloved coffee maker she threw herself down on the couch and closed her eyes trying to catch some sleep. If she continued on this path she was going to burn herself out before her line even hit stores. She desperately needs a break, she thought to herself as she switched on the morning news, but how could she possibly take a break. Just as the news anchor started a story about some socialite someone knocked on the apartment door and Brooke thought briefly about not answering it and making the person think that she was still asleep. Against her better judgment she slowly got up and called out that she was coming and made her way to the door. Swinging it open Brooke was not expecting to see Cooper standing on the other side of the door.

"Cooper! What are you doing here?" Brooke exclaimed completely forgetting about her headache and jumping into Cooper's arms.

"Well I was in New York and thought that I would stop by and see my favorite soon to be niece. Wow, Brooke you look a little worse for wear, what's wrong?" Cooper asked making his way into the apartment.

"I'm just a little burnt out I guess. I'm working almost 24/7 and in my frenzied life I completely forgot that Nathan's first game is on Monday and I can't make it because I have so much to do, but I really want to go and be there for him." She ranted looking at Cooper's smiling face and suddenly became confused. "What?"

"You need a vacation."

"I can't just take off, that's unprofessional. I'm trying to show people that I'm serious about this and not just some teenager, Cooper."

"That's all well and good Brooke, but everybody needs a break every now and then. I still take breaks so I'm forcing you to take a break, now pack some clothes because you're coming back to Tree Hill with me. I'll explain everything to Bill and them and make them understand, plus who knows taking a break might help you become inspired enough to finish the designs that you're having some troubles with. Now hurry up, you're chariot waits to take you to your love deprived boyfriend!" Cooper explained pushing Brooke up from the couch motioning towards her bedroom before turning the channel to ESPN.

Brooke walked into her room and shook her head at Cooper sitting in the other room. As she threw clothes in a bag she wondered why she hadn't called Cooper in the first place, he was one of her main investors and had a lot of power over the rest of them. Yet again shaking her head she hopped in the bathroom for a quick shower reminding herself to call or text Peyton about the change in plans. Twenty minutes later Brooke emerged from her bedroom smiling and gladly accepting the coffee that Cooper held out to her. "So I talked to Bill and he agreed that you need a break, so you have until next Wednesday off. I told you that I could handle it, why you don't call me with these problems is beyond me, but I digress and we have a plane to catch so move it!" Cooper exclaimed gently pushing Brooke's towards the door.

Getting off the plane an hour later Brooke smiled letting the slightly warm North Carolina sun wash over her. She grinned over at Cooper and looped her arm through his, finally feeling a million times better. She was going back to Cooper's house to hang out until Peyton's flight arrived and together they were heading over to Duke, to hopefully give their boyfriends a great surprise. Thanking Cooper for the millionth time she followed him into the house to take a nap before Peyton arrived and they headed over to see the boys. It took Brooke only minutes to crash on the nearest couch and drift off to a much needed peaceful sleep.

Nathan walked out of his last class of the day exhausted and wished that he could go back to his dorm and just crash but feeling Luke fall in step with him, he knew that the only thing he was going back to his dorm for was his bag and then he was off to practice. Sighing he picked up his pace he and Luke falling into place with Elliot Williams another member of the basketball team and easily worked his way into the conversation as they made their way back to their dorms.

Brooke woke up feeling well rested and like a weight had been removed from her shoulders. Sitting up she strained her eyes to see the clock and almost screamed it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon! Quickly getting up she haphazardly folded the blanket she had been using and rushed into the guest room where her things were and jumped into the shower. Just as she was getting out of the shower Peyton walked into the room looking as if she had just gotten off the plane. "Hey Brooke, where's the fire?" Peyton asked sitting on the edge of the bed watching Brooke sort through her clothes.

"You and I are going to surprise the boys at practice and practice ends in like an hour and a half so we need to hurry up because it's going to take like 45 minutes to get the campus and then find our way to where they have basketball practice, so hurry up get a move on it!" Brooke exclaimed stopping and looking at Peyton who was not moving.

"How about we just go to their dorms and wait for them there I mean that will gives us more time and plus I just got off the plane I really don't want to get in a car right now." Brooke mulled the idea over in her head and nodded suddenly coming up with the perfect way to ensure that Nathan and Luke would be in their dorm rooms. Smiling she picked up her phone and quickly began moving her fingers over the keys. After she had finished texting she set her phone down and began slowly going through her clothes. Peyton sighed in relief and fell back against the bed deciding that a shower could wait until later.

"So how are you P. Sawyer I barely get to talk to you anymore?" Brooke whined having thrown on some shorts and a tank while she still figured out what she was going to wear.

"I know I've been so busy and I usually only have time to talk to Luke. I could also say the same for you." The blond replied peeking through her half-lidded eyes resting her head against the pillows at the top of the bed.

"I feel really bad about not calling you more often but everything's been so crazy and I'm working pretty much 24/7 and I feel really bad that I can't be there for Nathan like he needs me to be."

"Whoa, Nathan's a big boy Brooke and he's probably kicking himself for not being there like you need him to be. So we're going to enjoy this weekend as much as we possibly can, get all decked out in Duke Gear for the game and cheer our heads off for the boys, okay?" Brooke smiled nodding her head as she finally picked out what she was going to wear. Peyton laughed at the smile on Brooke's face as she began getting ready leaving Peyton to get a little shut eye before they left.

After two hours of practice Nathan tiredly fell back onto his bed his body sinking into his mattress. He turned his head watching Luke do the same and softly laughed. "We're pretty lame dude." Nathan joked, turning on his side to look at his brother who was laughing as well.

"Well we did just get through a killer of a practice and a full day of classes so it's completely normal for us to be tired." Luke reasoned also turning on his side to face Nathan. "So I think we should just pop in a movie or something and relax because tomorrow's going to be just as bad." Nathan nodded and started to get up to find a movie to watch. Just as he was about to reach the DVD rack a knock stopped him from grabbing a random DVD. Looking over at Luke who shrugged his shoulders Nathan made his way to the door. Upon opening it his mouth fell open.

"Surprise!" Brooke exclaimed she and Peyton laughing at Nathan's reaction. Luke sprang up in .5 seconds flat when he heard Brooke's voice and his jaw dropped also when he saw Peyton standing next to Brooke.

"Well aren't you boys going to let your girlfriends in, or should we go find some other boys to stay with?" Peyton asked sharing an evil smile with Brooke. Nathan shook his head no and moved from the doorway motioning for them to come in. Brooke smiled and stayed where she was, waiting for Nathan to say something.

"Do you possibly want to take a walk with me?" She asked toying nervously with the hem of her shirt watching Nathan nervously. Nathan nodded turning to grab his sweatshirt before following her out of the resident hall and out into the night. They walked in silence for a little bit before Nathan stopped pulling Brooke into his arms. "I missed you." She whispered wrapping her arms tightly around Nathan.

"I missed you too. I honestly can't believe that you're here." Nathan admitted sitting down on a nearby bench.

"Well you can thank Cooper for that. He saw how burnt out I was when he stopped by this morning and decided that I needed a break, so here I am." She replied sitting down next to him and lacing her fingers with his. Nathan smiled tightening the hold he had on her hand.

"I don't know how I made it this long without seeing you or even holding your hand." Nathan whispered turning so he was facing her.

"I know we have to come up with a better plan. I've been running myself ragged thinking that if I keep busy and keep working that I won't realize that you aren't there and it's just not working for me anymore." Brooke honestly replied looking down at their entwined hands. Nathan sighed reaching up with his other hand and lightly cupping her cheek.

"We're trying the best that we can and we both knew that times were going to be hard. We're going to get through this and I think it's time we make a rule." Nathan said lifting her chin with his index finger.

"What kind of rule?" Brooke asked releasing Nathan's hand and turning to face him.

"I think that every three weeks we should try and see each other, and we'll alternate so you're not always flying down here."

"I think I should just fly down here during the basketball season and afterward we can come start alternating. You have to focus on basketball and your grades; I have a more flexible plate of responsibilities." She looked up at Nathan and smiled leaning in and pressed her lips forcibly against his. Nathan immediately responded and lightly cupped her face. "It was been _way_ too long since I've been able to do that." Brooke joked resting her forehead lightly against Nathan's. "What's your schedule tomorrow?" Brooke asked standing up from the bench and extending her hand to Nathan.

"I don't have class until about 11." Brooke nodded and pulled Nathan back towards his dorm.

"Good because we're spending the night at Cooper's." Nathan smiled and laughed at Brooke and fell in step in with her trying to get to the car as soon as possible, happy to get to spend some alone time with his girlfriend.

That Monday Nathan and Luke played their first game against Presbyterian. Nathan played for about 10 minutes and Duke ended up winning. Brooke and Peyton were there to support their boyfriends decked out in Duke blue from head to toe, it almost like high school all over again. After the game Nathan looked up at Brooke in the stands and smiled up at her. "We're gonna be just fine." He mouthed before going into the locker room with Luke. Brooke smiled watching him before exiting the stadium with Peyton; both on their way to the airport both had to get back to their hectic lives. Boarding the plane Brooke promised Peyton that she would call more often with Peyton doing the same. Settling into her seat Brooke pulled out her sketchbook her inspiration hitting her full force, the weekend had proved to do wonders for her. Picking up her phone to shut it off she smiled at the background picture of her and Nathan before the game with Brooke decked out in her cheer gear and Nathan with his jersey. They were going to get through it just fine; it was just going to take a lot from both of them.

A/N: I have finally updated! I am so sorry that I took FOREVER to update but I did not successfully master the art of going to school and having a job. However, since it is the summer and I only work about two days a week I'm going to try and update more often.


	22. Surprise Visit

**A/N: I'm back! I can't believe that I took so long to update this and I can't apologize enough. I need someone to just stay on me about updating or else I completely let life take over. I hope you guys like this chapter.**

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Brooke looked around the room at all the people there to celebrate the launch of her line. She smiled at the people passing her and said the occasional thanks, yet her heart was not fully in celebration mode. It had been a long 6 months for Brooke while she created the line and tonight was the celebration of the success of the line so far, most of the big department stores had picked up the line and the fashion show at Fashion Week had been a success, so everyone involved was celebrating. Looking around the room one more time Brooke sighed for the millionth time in three hours and decided to take a little breather.

Stepping out in the nippy December air, Brooke took a deep breath snuggling further into her jacket. She stood at the balcony and leaned over taking in the snow beneath her and thought of Nathan, who was not able to make it to the party because of finals and basketball. Pulling her phone out of the small clutch she carried with her Brooke opened a new message and began typing.

Nathan sat at the desk in his room hunched over trying to memorize the psychology terms for his final when his phone beeped. Nathan's first instinct was to ignore the message but something in the pit of his stomach told him to open the text message. Deciding to take a much needed break anyway Nathan grabbed his phone and opened it, happy then worried to see a text message from Brooke.

_I should be happy right now, my dream is coming true, yet I can't be happy no matter how hard I try. _

Nathan sighed and rubbed his tired eyes his heart breaking slightly. He knew that Brooke was probably feeling really alone at the moment, no one was there to celebrate with her. He felt horrible that he couldn't be there for her and in a moment of anger pushed his textbook away from him, startling Luke, who had fallen asleep on his psychology book. "What's wrong?" He asked sitting up and running a hand through his hair. Nathan didn't answer but held his phone out to Luke; he quickly read the message and looked up at Nathan eyes wide in slight panic. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, Luke. What should I do?" Luke thought about it for a moment before smiling and looking up at Nathan.

"We should fly up there this weekend and surprise her. That way you and Brooke get to send some time together and Peyton and I can spend some time together." Nathan nodded slowly processing the idea before smiling and high-fiving Luke.

Brooke had just stepped back into the party her forced smile back in place when her phone beeped. Stepping into the corner she pulled out her phone and opened the text message from Nathan.

_I wish I was there, to make you as happy as I am. I'm so proud of you Brooke. Love you, Nathan._

Brooke smiled slightly and shut her phone, deciding that if Nathan can be happy for her then she should be happy for herself. Immersing herself into the party Brooke began mingling with her guests, a renewed feeling of pride for herself building in the pit of her stomach. Looking back down at the text message a few moments later she knew that all she needed to keep going was to know that someone like Nathan was proud of her.

Nathan sat on his bed across from Luke the two of them quizzing each other when Nathan's phone beeped again and without a second thought Nathan picked it up smiling broadly at the screen of his phone.

_Thank you, you have no idea how much I needed to hear that someone loved me and was proud of me. Good luck on your final, I love you. B. _

Nathan shut his phone and continued his quizzing with Luke, a new feeling of confidence building within him.

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Nathan and Luke stepped off the plane and looked at each other beyond excitement that they had pulled off their surprise without alerting Brooke or Peyton of their plan. Quickly high-fiving each other they took off through the crowded airport and headed for the apartment where their clueless girlfriends were most likely still sleeping.

At the apartment Brooke and Peyton were passed out in Brooke's bed after they had spent most of the previous night catching up and just enjoying each other's company. Although the night would have been better if Nathan and Luke had been there, but the girls were lucky to get to have some time together before the craziness of the holidays and basketball games began.

Nathan and Luke pulled up in front of the apartment and quickly ran up the stairs and slipped into the apartment. They smiled at each other and made their way to the bedroom both moving over to the side of the bed where their girlfriends were sleeping. Nathan walked up to Brooke's side and smiled at her sleeping form before crouching down and lightly kissing beneath her ear, stifling his laughter as she moaned quietly in her sleep whispering his name. He began trailing kisses from beneath her ear to the corner of her mouth before kissing her soundly on the lips, mentally counting how long it took her to realize that he was actually kissing her. After fifteen seconds of kissing her Brooke's eyes flew open and she pushed Nathan away from her jumping up with Peyton, who was receiving the same treatment from Luke and together the two screamed and clung to each other while Nathan and Luke doubled over in a fit of laughter.

"Nathan? What the hell?!" Brooke exclaimed jumping down from the bed and standing in front of Nathan.

"Surprise!" Luke and Nathan cried laughing at the shocked faces of their girlfriends before both getting smacked soundly in the stomach by said girlfriends.

"That was not funny Nathan!" Brooke cried slightly angry at him for scaring her like that.

"I'm sorry." Nathan honestly replied looking down at her with an innocently sweet smile spread across his face. "I just wanted to surprise you and it seemed like a good idea at the time." Brooke sighed and shook her head not angry at Nathan that much for his surprise awakening.

"Well I can't say that I didn't enjoy being woken up like that, but geez you scared the hell out of me." Nathan chuckled a little bit and wrapped his arms around Brooke relishing the moment between them. Looking up at Peyton and Luke Nathan smiled at his brother, mentally congratulating him on the success of their surprise. "Now I wish that Peyton and Luke weren't here." Brooke whispered a few moments later, the soft raspy sound of her voice sending a shiver down Nathan's spine. Almost as if Peyton was thinking the same thing she pulled away from Luke and murmured something to Brooke before she was dragging Luke out of the apartment.

"That was easy." Nathan joked keeping his one arm wrapped around Brooke's shoulders as they exited the bedroom and went towards the kitchen. Their plan to spend the weekend together had fallen apart within the first three days of Nathan being together. She sighed, feeling as if she was failing him as a girlfriend.

"What's wrong?" Nathan asked pulling her against him wrapping his arms securely around her waist.

"When did we fall apart? When did we become so consumed with life that we forgot about each other?" She asked her voice slightly muffled by Nathan's shirt.

"What are you talking about?" Nathan asked pulling away slightly to look into her eyes, searching desperately for the answer to what was going on in her head.

"When I came to visit back when the season started we had a plan, and here it is almost two months later and that plan didn't work out. Is fate trying to tell us something or do I just suck as a girlfriend?" Brooke quietly asked the tears slipping from her eyes. Nathan sighed and ran a hand through her hair pulling her tightly against his body.

"You do not suck as a girlfriend Brooke Davis and fate isn't trying to tell us something. We just let life and all its problems get in the way. All we have to do is find a plan that works for us and stick to it."

"What if you're wrong?" She asked completely pulling out of his arms and took a few steps back. "I think that fate's trying to tell us something."

"Like what Brooke?" Nathan asked taking a step towards her, desperately wanting to pull her into his arms.

"I don't know, maybe we're not supposed to be together right now. Maybe we're supposed to take the time and get our lives together then we'll be able to work." She replied tears now streaming down her face.

"Brooke." Nathan whispered not wanting her to say something they'd both regret later.

"Nathan, I love you with all of my heart. I know that you're the one that I'm going to end up with. But maybe we need to get our careers up and going before we make that happen."

"Brooke." Nathan whispered again too stunned by the words coming out of her mouth to actually form a sentence.

"I'm being pulled in fifty different directions for Clothes Over Bros and you deserve a better than me, I can't keep hurting you by not supporting you. I know it hurts you every time I miss a game. Nathan we can't keep doing this to ourselves."

"What are you saying? You want to end this so you can focus on your career and not feel guilty about it?" Nathan asked his blue eyes finally meeting her teary brown eyes. Brooke opened her mouth and closed it a second later. "Is this what you really want? Do you really want to break up?" Nathan pressed taking a step towards her and forcing her to keep eye contact with him.

"No Nathan it's not what I want, what I want is to have things the way they were before you left for Duke. I want to be able to see you more often and be able to have an actual fucking relationship with you!" She yelled, suddenly furious with the situation they were in.

"Then let's change it. Don't let some stupid bullshit like distance ruin the best damn thing either of us has ever had! Don't shut me out just because it's too hard. Don't do this to me!" He yelled fire in his eyes. Brooke looked up at him and for a long moment they just stood there staring at each other.

"Where did it all go wrong?" Brooke whispered moments later, reminding Nathan of how the conversation started.

"When we forgot just how much we need each other." He honestly replied reaching out and grabbing her hand, holding it tightly in his own. "It's not going to easy baby, but I promise you that I'm going to fight like hell to make it work. I'll do whatever it takes to make it work. Please just don't run away from this." Nathan replied his voice cracking at the end of his sentence. Brooke looked up at him and her heart broke at the uncertainty he held in his eyes. Brooke lifted her free hand and gently cupped his cheek rubbing her thumb lightly against it.

"Don't give up on me." She whispered her eyes glassy again with tears. Nathan softly smiled and pulled her close resting his forehead against hers. "I promise to make it work no matter how it can get." Nathan nodded his head and lightly kissed Brooke pulling her so close to him that her feet actually left the ground.

"That's all that I want." He replied before kissing her again. Before Brooke let herself get lost in his kiss she suddenly had an idea how to make situation just little bit better. Smiling at herself Brooke finally gave into Nathan's passionate kiss happy at the turn of events that came from Nathans' surprise visit.

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**A/N: So I was actually planning on them breaking up but I wasn't happy with the way the chapter ended up, so I decided to have them stay together. I really hope you guys like this chapter. Thank you to all of those that have stayed around and been patient with me.**


	23. Brooke's New Assistant

**A/N: So I have to thank sobreyra274 for reviewing pretty much most of the day, whose reviews made me want to update the story sooner. This chapter is dedicated to you sobreyra274, thank you for your awesome reviews!**

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Brooke smiled her eyes scanning the pieces of clothing hanging in front of her. It had been a long 8 months to get to this point, it was only weeks before the line launched and Brooke could already feel the butterflies growing in her stomach. Reaching out she fingered the material wishing that someone were here to share in this moment with her. Just as the thought popped into her head the door of her newly acquired office, Brooke turned still holding onto the fabric of the dress hanging in front of her. "Jake?" Brooke asked unsure if Jake was actually standing in front of her, or if her mind was playing tricks on her. Jake smiled and stepped further into the office. "Jake!" Brooke exclaimed rushing over to him and throwing her arms around him. The last time she had actually seen Jake had been a few days after graduation, that was before he and Jenny decided to take some time for each other and took off on a vacation, family bonding time they called it. "What are you doing here?" She asked pulling away her smile growing on her face.

"I wanted to see you." He replied, as if it was the simplest explanation in the world. Truth be told, he had run into Nathan while he and Jenny were visiting Duke and Nathan had expressed his concerns over Brooke being by herself.

"When did you get back? Where's Jenny? Where is baby Jenny?" Brooke fired off pulling Jake over to the sitting area in front of her desk that was usually used for catching up with Cooper and reports with the investors.

"I got back last night. Jenny is at Yale during the college thing and baby Jenny is with my mom."

"How are you handling that?" Brooke asked curious to see if they were having the same problems that Brooke and Nathan were having.

"Well I'm handling it the best I can. I can go see her since she's not that far away. How are you holding up with Nathan being at Duke?" He asked wanting to see if Nathan's worries were legitimate or if Nathan was just overreacting.

"It's hard, a lot harder than neither of us imagined. I mean he's got basketball and classes and I have meetings and charity events, so it's hard to find time to see each other. We call and text each other every day if we can, but there are some days where either I'm really busy or he is and we don't talk." She replied the smile slipping from her face as she thought about the last time that she had actually seen Nathan. Jake sighed and reached over placing his hand on top of hers and gently squeezing.

"Well then it's a good thing that I'm back now isn't it? We can weather the long distance storm together. So tell me, how's the line doing?" Jake asked standing up and pulling her up with him walking towards the racks of clothing.

"It launched two months ago and it's doing pretty well in the department stores, but I'm thinking that I want my own store." Brooke admitted shyly, it was first time that she was admitting to someone besides herself about her dream of having her own clothing line in her own store. She looked at Jake trying to gage his reaction to what she had said.

"That sounds like a great plan Brooke." Jake encouragingly replied wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"Really?" She shyly asked cursing herself for sounding so vulnerable, but she had learned that in this business she had to be careful who to trust with her plans.

"Yes Brooke, you would have a fantastic store." Jake repeated smiling down at her, his mind flashing back to when they were younger. Jake's trip down memory lane was caught short by the simultaneous ringing of two phones. Brooke sighed and pulled away from Jake walking over to her office and picking it up leaving the cell phone to ring. Jake shrugged and walked over to it and picked it up. Brooke sat down at her desk with the phone attached to her ear looking at the same design that her pattern maker was looking at it, watching Jake sit down and take a message for her. She smiled as the idea suddenly popped into her head.

"Jake?" Brooke asked moments later after she hung up the phone and walked over towards where Jake was sitting.

"Cooper called and wanted me to remind you about his visit this weekend. He said he'd call back later." Jake told her handing her the cell phone.

"Thanks." She replied sitting down and flipping the phone over in her hands. "I just got an idea."

"Really what about?"

"I thought that maybe you could come work for me." Brooke suggested now nervously playing with the phone in her hand. Jake looked up surprised at her offer. "Think about it for a minute, will you? I need help around here and you're the only person I really trust out here. Plus we could set up a place for Jenny to play so she could be here too. Please Jake?" She asked sticking her bottom lip, hoping that Jake said yes. Jake looked at her and thought about what she was offering. If he took the job, he could keep a careful eye over Brooke for Nathan while making money for his family.

"Alright." He agreed a couple of minutes later after giving it serious thought. Brooke squealed and jump out of her seat throwing her arms around Jake thanking him over and over. Jake laughed and hugged her back also thanking her.

Later that afternoon as Jake sorted through the mass amounts of boxes in the back of Brooke's office; her cell phone began to ring in his pocket. Swiftly pulling it out of his pocket, he answered while returning to sorting through the box. "Clothes Over Bros." Nathan pulled the phone away from his ear to make sure he dialed the right number and shook his head.

"Um, Brooke?" He asked scratching his head. Jake stopped sorting the clothes in front of him.

"Oh hey Nathan, it's Jake."

"Why are you answering Brooke's cell phone?" He asked still confused and wondering if he misdialed and can't read the screen of his phone correctly. Maybe he took too many shots to the head at practice.

"I work for her now and she put me in charge of her cell phone."

"You work for her?" Nathan asked sitting up on his bed, convinced that he had definitely taken too many basketballs to the head during practice today.

"Yeah I came by to check on her like you asked me to and she offered me a job."

"Wow." Nathan replied rubbing his forehead. "That's cool, now you can make sure she doesn't work that hard and that makes me feel a little bit better. Do you think that I could talk to her?" Nathan asked laughing silently at himself.

"Let me just see if she's free." Jake put the phone against his shoulder and made his way towards the front where Brooke was sitting at her desk sketching. "Hey Brooke, Nathan's on the phone." Jake called making his way over to her desk. Brooke looked up and smiled holding out her hand for the phone. Jake gave her the phone and looked over her shoulder at the designs she had just sketched. "Looking good." Brooke blushed and swatted him away putting the phone to her ear.

"Hey babe!" Brooke cheerfully greeted pushing away from her desk looking where Jake had just vanished to. She listened to Nathan talk about his day and laughed when he got to the part about Jake answering her phone. Looking back towards the store room Brooke smiled; her new assistant was going to work out perfectly.

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**A/N: Okay so this chapter may seem a little random but I wanted a way to bring Jake back into the story. I hope you guys liked this chapter. I'm going to start on the next chapter tomorrow and hopefully update by the end of the week.**


	24. Final Goodbye

**Author's Note: Here it is, finally an update. I know that it's been a crazy LONG time since the last update, but yet again life got in the way. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and please let me know what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Tree Hill.

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Why on earth had she agreed to do this? Why would she actually agree to something her mother wanted her to do? Brooke wondered as she stepped into the house that still looked like people lived there, not actually lived in but held as a home, almost a model home of sorts. Picking up the load of cardboard boxes Brooke started up the walkway and into the house determined to get the house packed up by Thursday. Feeling determined Brooke turned the stereo up and went about taking apart her living room.

Over an hour later Brooke had taken a break from the living room and was heading into the dining room when the front door opened and Jake strolled in holding two coffees and smiled at her. "Hey Bossy." He joked handing her one of the coffees and sitting on the stairs with her. "How's it going so far?" He asked looking at all the boxes in front of her.

"I've gotten half the living room done and now I'm just going from room to room, trying not to get bored." She replied sipping her coffee and smiling since Jake had remembered her favorite coffee and even got it from her favorite place. "You remembered." She whispered looking at him a huge smile on her face.

"Well yeah, of course I did, I mean I've only been there with you a thousand time and ordered for you a thousand times. Did you really think I would forget?" Brooke shook her head knowing that Jake could never forget. "We had a lot of fun times in this house didn't we?" Jake asked moments later standing up and taking a walk throughout the house.

"You actually made this place fun to be in, you know that? I never wanted you to leave when you came over to play and when we lost touch it was hard to be in here and not relive our memories together."

"I know what you mean, my house is just as bad. What happened to us?" He asked stopping in the middle of the kitchen catching Brooke off guard.

"High school, Ashley took me under her wing and introduced me to the world of high school basketball players. She told me that it would be social suicide to be seen with the loner basketball player and I stupidly believed her. I can't believe I let someone influence me that much to give up the only true best friend I ever had." Brooke replied hopping up onto the counter and looking over at Jake. "I never forgave myself for that and when Ashley slept with Nathan I knew that she was just using me to make herself look better. Thinking back on it that's the same thing I did."

"I didn't help matters either by pulling myself away from you. I probably could've became more popular and gotten back into your social circle, but you looked so happy that I couldn't do that to you. I didn't want to ruin the only sort of family you had ever had." Jake replied leaning against the counter right across from Brooke.

"Why does this feel like an Oprah session?" Brooke joked a few moments later smiling at Jake as he laughed.

"So any plans with Nathan this weekend since he finally has some time off?" Jake asked breaking the silence between the two.

"I was thinking about surprising him if I finished early, but otherwise no. What about you and Jenny? Wasn't she going to fly down here and spend some time with you?" At the mention of Jenny's name Jake broke eye contact with Brooke and looked out the window. "Jake?"

"We're not together anymore." He whispered still starring out the window.

"What?" Brooke asked jumping off the counter and moving in front of Jake.

"Yeah she called the other day and told me that she didn't know where I fit in anymore. She didn't think that she wanted to settle down so quickly with the instant family. She wanted time to discover herself so she broke it off."

"Jake." She murmured wrapping her arms around him. "I'm so sorry I know how much you cared about her. I'm so sorry that you're hurting right now." She whispered tightening her hold on him.

"Thanks Brooke, but there's really nothing I can do but keep myself busy and try not to think about it."

"Well it won't be long until you'll have another girl beating down your door trying to get to you, you're a great catch and any girl would be lucky to have you." Brooke replied hoping to make Jake feel even a little bit better. Jake smiled and squeezed Brooke once more before letting go and taking a step back.

"Now let's get back to work so that maybe we can go see that boyfriend of yours. Plus this house reminds me too much of Victor-a-bitch and it's freaking me out." Jake replied laughing a little at his nickname for Brooke's 'mother'. Brooke laughed too and grabbed some boxes to begin packing up the kitchen. "What are you doing with this stuff anyway?"

"Well I get to keep the kitchen stuff and the sofas, maybe my bed, but otherwise I'm shipping it out to California for my mom and then they're selling the house." Jake nodded glad for the distraction and Brooke knew that he really didn't care about what was happening to the stuff in the house, he just wanted something new to talk about. Brooke stopped packing the cabinet in front of her and walked over towards Jake and wrapping her arms around his torso. "Thanks Jake, you've made it so much easier this past two months." Jake smiled and turned wrapping her in a proper hug and gave her an extra squeeze.

"Don't worry about it Brooke, that's what I'm here for." He sighed and kissed the top of her head before pulling away and going back to the drawers in front of him. The two of them made quick work of packing up the house making Brooke's goodbye trip to Tree Hill a little bit shorter.

It's time to say goodbye, there's nothing holding her back here anymore. Anything that could have any hold on her is packed up in boxes ready to be shipped off to its new home. An odd feeling rises in her throat, she didn't think that she would be upset about the selling of her childhood home, but as she watches the moving men picking up the boxes she feels something. The pile of boxes going to California gets smaller and smaller as the feeling gets bigger and bigger. If Brooke really thought about it the feeling felt something close to sadness, it was the final chapter of this part of her life. Before she could've returned and pretended like her departure never happen but now, now she had to face reality. She left this life behind and got a chance to do it better.

With the final box Brooke feels relief suddenly wash over, it's done. She has no physical ties with Tree Hill anymore. The only thing connected with this town is her memories, she's only holding onto the good ones letting the bad ones be only remembered by the scars on her heart. She smiles at the delivery guy as he leaves with the final box; she's finished ahead of schedule today a fact that makes her smile. Looking over at the boxes under the sign that says to Boston she ponders about opening the one that contains her photo albums but she decides against it the sunshine calling her name. It's a beautiful day in Tree Hill and what better way to spend it than by taking a final trip down memory lane.

She walks outside a few steps and down the porch turning to look at the red door that she hid behind for so many years and part of her is suddenly nervous about not having the comfort of the red door to hide behind. Taking in the whole house Brooke couldn't help but tear up at the many lonely nights she spent in the house nursing a broken heart. The sad days greatly outnumbered the happy days, making her wonder why she stayed in town for as long as she did. Shaking her head and wiping away a stray tear she made her way down the street letting the sunshine wash over her.

Her next stop took her to Peyton's house. She walked up the walkway and stood in front of the house she had ever felt at home in. She even smiled at the final fight that Peyton and she had shared days before she decided to take off. She knew as she stood in front of the house that the friendship between her and Peyton was built to last. They had been through so much in their lives together that they couldn't just walk away from each other. She took one last look at the house bidding it a silent goodbye before going down the walkway and continuing on her goodbye trip down memory lane.

As Brooke walked through the familiar streets of Tree Hill doubt began to cloud her mind. She was having second thoughts about leaving town again. Tree Hill was a great place to grow up and she had so many connections to the town that she wondered if she could ever really turn her back on it. She stopped taking a look around the street on which she stood and she smiled. She could never truly leave this place. She felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders as she continued walking heading towards her next destination.

Walking up to the eldest Scott brother's house filled Brooke's head with every single memory they had shared together and her eyes pooled with tears. Every time she actually thought about the relationship she shared with Lucas she would tear up. He was the first guy that she actually gave her heart to and no matter how much time goes by it still hurts to think about they turned out. Letting her mind go back to the last time she had been at the house Brooke balled her fist up at her side. It was dangerous going back to that place, that place was filled with crushing depression and a shattered heart. That was the lowest moment in Brooke's life; it was the moment that ripped the ground out from underneath her. She wiped at the tears falling down her face as she turned away from the house and began walking towards the river court, placing all the memories of her relationship with Luke back into the dark corner of her mind never to be thought of again.

As she walked up to the river court she spotted someone sitting on one of the picnic tables looking out into the river. She paused for a moment contemplating leaving until the familiarity of the person hit her. She smiled softly and continued on her way happy to see him.

Nathan sat on the picnic table starring out into the river. He sighed feeling the stress and tension of the past few weeks, no months, in his shoulders. Looking out into the river he tried to let the peaceful nature run over him but his mind kept going back to Brooke and how he should be with her on his lone weekend off in a long time. But he couldn't find it in him to pull his phone out of his pocket and call her; he knew that he should call her and at least talk to her but something kept his hand from reaching into this pocket.

"Hey." Brooke greeted softly smiling when she saw Nathan jump slightly before turning around and the recognition hit him. She didn't wait for him to reply before standing on the bench of the picnic table and sitting down next to him looking out over the river. "Taking a long weekend?" She asked a few moments later finally glancing at him since she had first seen him.

"Yeah I don't have basketball this weekend or classes tomorrow so I decided to head to my mom's for a little bit, maybe call you and see if you wanted to spend the weekend somewhere." He replied reaching over and grabbing her hand. Brooke smiled at their entwined hands; these were the little moments she loved about her relationship with Nathan. "Aren't you supposed to be packing up your house?" He asked suddenly remembering what Brooke had told him days before during one of their many conversations.

"I decided to come earlier than planned and finished earlier than planned. You have no idea how easy it was to divide up and pack up everything in the house."

"Divide up?" Nathan asked still looking out into the river just soaking in the moment.

"Yeah mom said that I could take some stuff for the apartment and some other stuff just in case I wanted it later on." Brooke replied hoping that Nathan didn't ask what just in case really meant; she wasn't ready to tell him about it just yet.

"That's awfully nice of your mom." Nathan felt that there was something more to her statement but decided to let it drop for now.

"So what are you doing just sitting here?" Brooke asked turning so she was facing Nathan. Nathan sighed and took a deep breath before turning towards Brooke.

"I just wanted to have a few moments to myself, some time where no one was bothering me about study groups, practice, or some random party they wanted me to go to, I wanted to capture the feeling of being at home with you away from everyone else." He rambled on not knowing how to exactly explain what he was feeling. Brooke just nodded and seemed to understand.

"Come on." She replied standing up and holding her hand out to him.

"Where are we going?" He asked as they walked away from the river court. Brooke just shrugged her shoulder and kept walking. "Can I at least know what we're doing?"

"Before I ran into you I was taking a sort of goodbye trip down memory lane and I thought we could just finish it together." Nathan nodded and let her continue to follow him. They walked down the familiar streets of Tree Hill for about 10 minutes before they ended up in front of the elementary school.

Nathan stopped and starred at the building, the memories of the early days of Brooke Davis and Nathan Scott flashing before his eyes. "Do you remember the first day of kindergarten?" He softly asked afraid to ruin the memory of that very day. Brooke stood next to him smiling at the memory of that day.

"You were with Jake," She began almost seeing the memory materialize in front of her. "My nanny had just dropped me off and I didn't know anyone and Jake came over to me. He introduced you and him and asked if I wanted to play with you guys. We had so much fun in elementary school after that. Somehow we always managed to be put in the same classes almost as if someone was making sure that we stayed together." Nathan laughed at the fact the she still hadn't realized that they were purposefully always put together.

"You didn't know that my mom and Jake's mom had asked the principal to make sure that we stayed together?" Nathan asked slightly shocked that she hadn't figured it out.

"Why?" She asked laughing at how she had never really put the pieces together before.

"She said that when I was with you and Jake I wanted to go to school, said that it made it easier for me to adjust or something. I just wished that she could've done in middle school." Brooke nodded the memories of middle school suddenly flashing before her eyes. "Middle school was the beginning of our drift."

"Yep that's when Tropical Storm Peyton came into my life." Nathan laughed and grabbed her hand continuing on their walk. "So I didn't tell you how good it is to see you. I don't realize how much I actually miss having you around until I see you." Nathan laughed wrapping his arm around her shoulder and kissing her temple as they walked down the street.

"Brooke, that's sweet but we saw each other two weeks ago when I got the flu and you came down to see me."

"I know but I wanted to make sure that you were being taken care of, I can't just entrust you in Luke's care."

"Wow Brooke, I would love to see Luke's face if he knew that." Brooke laughed and pushed Nathan. "So how much more of this trip down memory lane do you have left?"

"I was going to walk by the high school but thinking about it now, I don't really have any good memories there ya know? I mean sure there were some good times but nothing that really propels me to go back. So Karen's for some lunch is the last stop." Nathan nodded and turned heading towards Karen Café.

Walking into Karen's Café Brooke smiled at Karen, who was standing behind the counter leaning against it and reading a book. "It must be my lucky day!" She exclaimed coming from out behind the counter and pulling Nathan into a hug then Brooke. "What are you guys doing here?" She asked motioning for them to sit at the counter.

"Well I'm in town boxing up my parent's house and Nathan's taking a break from school." Nathan nodded smiling as she placed their drinks in front of them.

"And I thought that I was having a great day when Luke walked in earlier today."

"Where is Luke now?" Brooke asked taking a sip from her drink. Karen shrugged and instantly busied herself getting their orders ready. Nathan looked over at Brooke and sighed. "What was that about?" She asked completely missing the sudden awkwardness in the air.

"Haley was working when we arrived and they're spending time together." Nathan replied preparing himself for her reaction.

"Good for Luke, I'm glad that he's branching out and reconnecting with Haley, I mean they were best friends at one point." She shrugged and turned towards the door watching Luke and Haley walk in. Both stopped in their tracks, Luke starring wide-eyed at Brooke and Haley almost glaring at her. "Hey Luke, we're having lunch you wanna join us?" Brooke asked paying no mind to Haley, who was still stuck in her spot and looking between Nathan and Brooke. Luke glanced at Haley then back at Brooke mentally debating to himself which was the safest option. Haley nodded and pushed him towards Brooke muttering something about having to go back to work. Nathan chuckled a little bit at the slightly frightened look on Luke's face. Brooke got up and joined Nathan on his side of the booth giving Luke the seat across from them.

"Hey Brooke, where's Jake?" Luke asked hoping to avoid the awkward moment that was bound to happen since Haley was so close to Brooke.

"He's with his parents, I felt bad keeping him so occupied at the house that I gave him some time off to hang with his parents." Luke nodded and smiled as Haley placed his usual order in front of him. Nathan watched Brooke as Haley walked up to the table with this orders, ready to jump in on a moment's notice that nothing got out of hand. Brooke looked up and smiled, not wanting to spur on any altercation and as Haley walked away she let herself indulge in praise for her maturity, before joining in the conversation going on around her.

Her final goodbye to the life she had left in Tree Hill left Brooke with the hope that if she did ever come back she wouldn't have the constant reminders of the horrible memories. As she drove with Luke and Nathan back to Duke she felt as if the huge chip on her shoulder had been broken and she could finally move on. She could finally start fresh without the daily reminders of what had transpired in Tree Hill.

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**A/N: So I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It was a mixture of two drafts that I had done and this afternoon as I was reading over them I decided to combine them and make them into this chapter. I hope you guys stick with me until the next update.**


	25. Decision Time

Brooke Davis had a big decision to make. Sitting in the middle of her bed surrounded by papers, Brooke had no idea what she was getting herself into. When she had moved to Boston almost a year and a half ago, she didn't know that she was going to start her fashion line and have it take off so well. She thought that she would just get her fresh start and get back on track to the rest of her life. But now she was faced with the dilemma of constantly spending money traveling to New York to meet with different investors and other people that she was spending more time in the city she was in Boston. So now she was faced with having to decide whether to continue living in the Boston or just take the plunge and move to New York.

The decision required taking a lot more into consideration than just her pure exhaustion from traveling. She had to take into account the fact that she was going to either ask Jake to uproot his life from Boston and come with her continuing to her amazing assistant/care taker or fire him. She also had to think about how Nathan was going to react to the move as well, since she was already so far away from him and New York would add even more distance between them and might end up cutting into the already limited time they have together.

Deciding to just end the madness, Brooke made a plan to talk to both boys and get their opinions on the matter that way when she went to New York this time she could finally answer her business managers' constant questions about the move. Reaching towards the table next to her bed Brooke quickly sent a text to her faithful assistant and moved to get up from her bed, ready to face this decision head on.

20 minutes later Jake let himself into the apartment searching the small space for Brooke concerned as to what they could actually have to talk about. Her text message had only said that she needed to speak to him and judging by the stressed out look on her face the last time he saw her, he didn't have high hopes that this conversation was going to be a fun one. Stopping by the coffee maker which had gone off when he had walked in Jake filled up two cups and made his way to the only remaining place Brooke could be. True enough, he found her sitting in the middle of her bed concentrating very hard on the papers spread around her. "Hey Brooke." He called sitting on the edge of the bed not covered in papers and handing her one of the cups.

"Thank you." She greeted taking a sip of the steamy liquid.

"So what's up?" He asked moving a few more of the papers to get comfortable.

"I have something to sort of run by you. It's nothing bad per say depending on how you respond but I think it could be a really good thing." Jake just nodded silently telling her to continue on. "So you know that I've been traveling a lot back and forth to New York in the past 3 months and how tiring it is, so Cooper and Valerie think that I should move the whole operation to New York City. Now if I decide to do this that means that you'll either have to pack up and move with me or stay here and find another job. I really need your opinion because you've been such a great assistant that I don't think I could move to New York without you. Valarie has been looking at places for me to live and she found a duplex in Soho that's big enough for you and Jenny to live with me." Brooke stopped speaking to give Jake some time to process what she was saying to him.

"So what you want me to come move with you to New York? Is that the whole point of that speech?" He asked minutes later his head still trying to wrap around everything she had said to him.

"Yes Jake, I want you to come with me. I think that you are a vital part to helping me keep everything organized." Jake nodded and looked down at the bedspread toying with the idea of moving to New York.

"What does Nathan think about all of this?" Brooke sighed and looked down her shoulders slumping.

"I haven't talked to Nathan about it yet, I've been trying to figure out how to ask him. I don't want him to think that I'm trying to put even more distance between us. It's hard enough as it is now with everything going on to see him, what's going to happen if I really do move to New York? I'm just nervous about asking him, afraid of how he's going to see it." She rambled a few tears falling from her eyes.

"Brooke," Jake began reaching out and squeezing her hand. "It's Nathan that we're talking about. He loves you more than anything else in the world. He's going to support you no matter what; you just have to be up front and honest with him. I, personally, think that you need to tell him this in person, not over the phone."

"I know, I guess I'll just tell them when I see him for his final regular season game." Jake nodded smiling slightly at how devoted Brooke was to seeing all of Nathan's games. "You're coming too right?" Jake nodded yet again and stood up extending his hand to her.

"Come on let's get you packed so we can solve this dilemma of yours." Brooke smiled and accepted his hand letting him pull her up from the bed. Asking Jake had been easy, now Brooke just had to muster up the courage to ask Nathan his opinion, a feat that slightly unnerved Brooke.

Nathan sat in his dorm room attempting to finish the last paragraph of his research paper. He knew that he had to finish his paper before Brooke came into town because he wasn't going to miss a minute of time with her, it had been literally three weeks since the last time he had seen his girlfriend. He had been so focused on his paper that he hadn't even had time to really talk to her on the phone but from what he had heard from Jake she was really pushing herself to the limit both mentally and physically. He just hoped that this weekend would help her come to terms with whatever was bothering her. Finishing the final sentence of his paper Nathan hit save and got up ready to meet Brooke at her hotel to spend a few interrupted hours with her.

Brooke sat by the pool of her hotel watching Jake play with Jenny in the water. Checking her phone she anxiously waited for Nathan to call her to let her know that he was done with his paper and at the hotel. She hoped that her conversation with Nathan went well because she really need him to be on board with the moving plan because otherwise Brooke didn't think that she would be able to do it.

When Nathan finally arrived at Brooke's hotel, Brooke was sitting in her room working on some new sketches. Letting himself in with the key Brooke had left for him at the front desk, Nathan smiled when he saw her sitting by the window her sketch pad nestled in her lap completely focused on shading her design. He walked up behind her chair and leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Hey Babe." He greeted moving to sit on the table in front of her.

"Hey Nathan." She greeted leaning forward and giving him a proper kiss. "Finish your paper?" She asked closing her sketch pad and leaning forward smiling when Nathan nodded.

"Are you okay? You look awfully tired and stressed out." Nathan asked grabbing both of her hands and leaning forward resting his forehead against hers.

"I've just been travelling a lot back and forth from New York and Boston. It's beginning to take a toll on me."

"Maybe you should just move to New York to cut it on the excessive traveling." Nathan suggested making Brooke smile and chuckle a little bit.

"That's actually something I wanted to talk to you about this weekend. Valarie found me a place in Soho big enough for Jake and I."

"Why would you want to talk to me about it? I mean you know I'd support you no matter what Brooke." Brooke nodded and squeezed his hand, slightly overwhelmed by Nathan's sweetness.

"I didn't want to make such a big decision without at least letting you know. I don't want you to think that I'm putting even more distance between us. This place is big enough for you to come stay with me during the summer and on breaks and Jake's already agreed to move with me, so I won't be alone. I guess I also wanted you to tell me that it's the smart decision and be there to support me in my decision."

"Brooke, moving to New York isn't putting more distance between us, maybe physically but not emotionally. I'm still in love with you and still want to be with you as long as humanly possible. I've told you numerous times I'm in this for the long haul. I think moving to New York is the smartest decision because you won't be travelling as much and maybe you'll be able to take more time off. Plus we'll only be apart for another three months then I'll be with you all the time." Brooke smiled and leaned forward pressing her lips against his. Nathan responded immediately pulling her up from her chair and towards the bed determined to make the most of their limited time together. As Brooke's knees hit the edge of the bed all thoughts of New York and work were pushed from her mind.

The following morning when Brooke woke up in Nathan's arm she knew that moving to New York was the best thing for her. Being in New York would make it easier for her to focus on the clothing line and finally reach the level of success she's been dreaming of since she was a little girl. She also looked forward to spending the summer in New York with Nathan.

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**A/N: Finally an update! I'm pretty surprised at how fast this chapter happened. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, there is unfortunately only one chapter left in this story.**


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